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Carlos Watson, founder and CEO of Ozy Media, has retired after a major hosting gig New York Times Exposé that raised serious questions about the media company’s legitimacy and revealed that Watson’s co-founder Samir Rao posed as a YouTube manager while the company was trying to raise money from Goldman Sachs.
Watson was scheduled to host the documentary portion of the 42nd News and Documentary Emmy Awards on Wednesday night. However, on Tuesday afternoon, Watson resigned from the role.
“Carlos Watson kindly reached out to us and asked to be removed from his hosting duties tomorrow night so as not to divert focus from the talented nominees in the documentary categories of the 42nd News & Documentary Emmy Awards,” a spokesperson for the awards Show tells The Hollywood Reporter.
In his place, the moderators June Cross, CJ Hunt and Sonja Sohn share the hosting tasks.
The news section of the News and Doc Emmys presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will take place Tuesday evening, with Wolf Blitzer, Norah O’Donnell and Juju Chang among a number of hosts.
Watson, a former CNN commentator and MSNBC anchor, founded Ozy Media in 2013 to capitalize on the boom in positive, millennial-focused digital media companies. Ozy has since expanded to include several TV production contracts with, among others, OWN, PBS and A&E Networks. It also hosts an annual event called OzyFest with an eclectic mix of musicians, artists and public figures.
the Times However, Story suggested that the digital business Ozy is building on was based on flimsy data and pointed to dubious marketing claims (for example, a billboard in Los Angeles said The Carlos Watson Show was “Amazon Prime’s First Talk Show” although Ozy actually uploaded it to Prime through a service that any YouTube user can enjoy).
Watson replied to the article by accusing its author, former BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith, of having a conflict of interest arising out of his involvement in takeover talks that BuzzFeed had with Ozy in 2019.
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