Veteran TV personality Julie O'Neill, who wrote about her WCPO-TV firing in her BOLD book released in June, is taking a new bold step in her career.
O'Neill will host a half-hour lifestyle show called Now In The Nati on Fox affiliate WXIX-TV in January, after her one-year WCPO-TV non-compete clause expires at the end of December.
"I can't be on the air yet, but I'm already in the (Fox 19) building working on the lifestyle show," says O'Neill, 55, who was removed from WCPO-TV's newscasts a year ago after she was told her contract would not be renewed after 27 years.
She rejected Scripps' $50,000 severance offer because the company insisted she sign a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting her from talking about her departure from the company, as she detailed in her tell-all book, BOLD: The Secret to My BIG WINS To Help YOU CRASH Through Your Comfort Zone.
Former WCPO-TV coworkers now working at Fox 19 reached out to O'Neill in the summer and asked if she'd be interested in talking to Jennifer Rieffer, WXIX-TV vice president and general manager, about a lifestyle show. She signed a two-year contract in Rieffer's office on Sept. 13, the one-year anniversary of her Channel 9 firing.
Now In The Nati will be produced from the marketing and sales departments, similar to WCPO-TV's Cincy Lifestyles at 10 a.m. weekdays hosted by Michelle Hopkins, Pete Scalia and Mikhayla Hughes-Shaw. Now In the Nati will air at 12:30 p.m., following the new InvestigateTV+ at noon from station owner Gray Television.
O'Neill is executive producer and host of the half-hour show, which will have at least one reporter and a part-time co-host. She's talking to set designers and watching Gray Television's NOLA Now on WVUE-TV in New Orleans.
By not being part of the news department, O'Neill will have latitudes to talk to sponsors, she says.
"We want to create something that doesn't look like an infomercial. We want to highlight restaurants, events, new businesses and entrepreneurs. I want to make it beneficial and interesting to the community, to be fun and hip and fresh," she says.
WXIX-TV's announcement says that "Julie’s contagious enthusiasm and love of people make her the perfect host to showcase the positive things happening across the Tri-State."
"I did not know Julie, but we clicked immediately," Rieffer says. "A lifestyle show is something I had wanted to do for a while, but the timing had to be right. This came together very quickly. I wanted someone (as host) deeply rooted not just in Cincinnati, but what the Tristate holds for viewers, and a veteran who knows the lay of the land. Julie's a genuine personality."
O'Neill was told a year ago her contract would not be renewed in December after 27 years and was immediately pulled off the Good Morning Tri-State newscasts with co-anchor Adrian Whitsett. She was paid until her contract expired last December.
In her book released June 13, O'Neill noted that she was let go nine days after aging out of the 25-54 demographic TV stations use to sell advertising. Two weeks later she sued WCPO-TV and owner E. W. Scripps Company in federal court. The suit is pending.
Most of her 154-page memoir is filled with stories from O'Neill's career about interviewing Mother Teresa (now St. Teresa); Merv Griffin (the talk show host and Wheel of Fortune creator) and Bill Clinton (before she bumped him and spilled his coffee); working at Miami Fox affiliate WSVN-TV with future cable TV news stars Shepard Smith and Robin Meade; and covering breaking news or anchoring at Channel 9 since 1995. Her firing is detailed in Chapter 13, "The Not So Grand Finale: How I got kicked off the stage."
"Everywhere I go, people are asking about the book. When we get on the air, you might see a bookshelf in the background," she says.
"I'm in brainstorming mode. If anyone has ideas for the show, they can email suggestions to me at Julie.Oneill@fox19now.com."
