Biography:

Charles or Charlie Rose is a prolific television host, producer, news anchor, and writer. He was born Charles Peete Rose Jr. on January 5, 1942 in Henderson, North Carolina. He is best known as the eponymous host of Charlie Rose, the popular late night program.

Airing on weekdays, The Charlie Rose Show has interviewed some of the greatest newsmakers, celebrities, politicians, athletes, businesspersons, scientists and writers in the world. Every 11pm, Charlie engages these individuals in 20-minute conversations around his signature oak roundtable. The sight of this table, afloat against a pitch-black backdrop, is an iconic sight to behold for Charlie’s sizable fan base.

Rose has a composed, gentlemanly presence on the screen. Ever the diplomat, he never starts arguments on his show; as for his perspectives, he never touches on extremes.

On September 30, 1991, The Charlie Rose Show debuted on Thirteen/WNET, with an airtime slot on The Learning Channel. Eventually, it was syndicated to a national audience in January 1993. Today it is being broadcasted through PBS and its 215 affiliate stations.

At present, Charlie is also a correspondent for 60 Minutes II at CBS and hosts The Charlie Rose Special Edition, profiling such entertainment luminaries like Meryl Streep. With Great Masters, he delves into the achievements and lives of the artists. Moreover, he figures in science specials such as the Human Genome Project.

Just before he went national with The Charlie Rose Show, Rose had anchored Twentieth-Century Fox Television’s Personalities. He accepted the job in 1990, only to be disappointed by its tabloid subjects six weeks after. Ten months later, he successfully pitched the idea of the eponymous interview program to Bill Baker, the top honcho of PBS affiliate, Thirteen/WNET-TV.

Earlier, Charlie Rose had been an obscure personality, known best by 1980s night owls as the host of CBS News Nightwatch, which aired from 2:00 A.M. to 6:00 A.M, five times a week. His six-year stint with the program paid off when he won his first Emmy Award in 1987 for his three-hour conversation with murderer Charles Manson.

He earned his second Emmy in 1992, two years before The Charlie Rose Show was threatened by the financial woes of its studio, WNET. He was compelled to transfer the program to Bloomberg Television News.

Rose had nothing to do with journalism at first, studying for law at Duke University. Disenchanted with lawyers, Rose enrolled at New York University for a business course. He eventually inadvertently warmed to a career in broadcasting when his ex-wife, Mary King, researched for 60 Minutes. He then landed his first weekly reporting job in WPIX-TV in New York City a few years later.

Earning Bill Moyers’ trust, Rose was consigned as managing editor for Bill Moyers International Report two years later. Then he executive produced Bill Moyers’ Journal. He won a 1976 Peabody Award for “A Conversation with Jimmy Carter,” an episode of Moyers’ political TV magazine, U.S.A.: People and Politics. Moyers left PBS in 1976 and inspired Rose to become a political correspondent for NBC News in Washington, D.C. In 1978, Rose hosted ABC’s A.M./Chicago, which would later become The Oprah Winfrey Show. A year later, he hosted a talk show at Texas-based KXAS-TV. It would later become The Charlie Rose Show.