Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
For more than 30 years, John Kiesewetter has been the source for information about all things in local media — comings and goings, local people appearing on the big or small screen, special programs, and much more. Contact John at johnkiese@yahoo.com.

Gretchen Carlson Returning To TV In Spring

John Kiesewetter
Gretchen Carlson

Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson says she'll return to TV in the spring, nearly two years after her departure from Fox.

Credit John Kiesewetter
Gretchen Carlson greets former Channel 9 sports anchor Dennis Janson at Books By The Banks Saturday.

"I plan to be back on television. I'm working with an iconic producer for something this spring, but I can't talk more about it," said Carlson while promoting her new "Be Fierce: Stop Harassment" bookat Books By The Banks Saturday.

Carlson left Fox News when her contract expired June 23, 2016. Two weeks later, on July 6, she filed a lawsuit against Roger Ailes, then Fox News chairman and CEO, claiming sexual harassment. Ailes was forced to resign in September 2016, after many other women also accused Ailes of harassment.

Carlson reportedly settled the lawsuit with 21st Century Fox Corporation, which owns the Fox News Channel, for $20 million.

"One of the most important things I got was a public apology (from Fox). That just doesn't happen. That was the most important thing to me," said Carlson, a former WCPO-TV reporter-anchor (1992-94), during a discussion Saturday at the Duke Energy Convention Center moderated by Tanya O'Rourke, a Channel 9 coworker.

Among those in the audience was Dennis Janson, former Channel 9 sports anchor. Carlson, the 1989 Miss America from Minnesota, started as a Channel 9 night shift reporter in 1992 working with reporter John Matarese. She also saw chief news photographer Terry Helmer, another Channel 9 associate, when O'Rourke taped an interview with her after speaking to Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm employees in downtown Friday. She told O'Rourke that she was not harassed while working in Cincinnati.

Credit John Kiesewetter
Gretchen Carlson, Dennis Janson and Tanya O'Rourke

Carlson began her TV career at WRIC-TV in Richmond, VA, before coming here. After Channel 9, Carlson anchored at WOIO-TV in Cleveland (1994-98) and KXAS-TV in Dallas before joining CBS News in 2000. She co-anchored CBS' Saturday edition of "The Early Show" in 2002 with Russ Mitchell before joining Fox News in 2005.

In her first book, "Getting Real" (2015), Carlson wrote about being fired in Cleveland a week after her honeymoon by the general manager who said, "Now that you're married, you'll be okay."

"I was too stunned to respond, but later it was those words – 'Now that you're married, you'll be okay' – that upset me… I was a professional who had dedicated years to establishing my career, and he brushed me off with a gratuitous remark. I never heard of a man losing his job and being told, 'Don't worry. You're married. You'll be okay.'"

Carlson told me that she has "put off thinking about (TV) things until she's past the book launch." Last week she was in Los Angeles, New York, Connecticut and Iowa before coming to Cincinnati.

John Kiesewetter, who has covered television and media for more than 35 years, has been working for Cincinnati Public Radio and WVXU-FM since 2015.