John Kennedy O'Connor (born in 1964) is a television and radio broadcaster, author, and entertainment commentator. He was born in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, but is a naturalized citizen of the United States. He has written, reported and broadcast for numerous media organizations, as well as written, created and produced media events for a number of international corporations. He is best known for his work within the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

as a TV commentator and host. Until 2023, he was the news anchor for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

channels

KIEM-TV KIEM-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Eureka, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Marquee Broadcasting alongside low-power CBS affiliate KVIQ-LD (channel 14). The two stations share studios on South Bro ...

and KVIQ-LD, before moving to CBS Station

KIMA-TV KIMA-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Yakima, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside low-power, Class A Univision affiliate KUNW-CD (channel 2). The two sta ...

in Washington, as the main anchor.

Eurovision Song Contest involvement

In 2005, Carlton Books published his book ''The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History'', in conjunction with the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

, initially produced in English,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, French, Swedish, Dutch and Danish editions, with a separate English publication in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. A Finnish version followed in 2007 as did a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

version in 2009. The book has been updated, expanded and reprinted three times in the UK. The 2010 edition () was published by Carlton Books, UK, in April 2010. The first edition of the book, published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, was listed in the Top 10 book sales of both Amazon UK and Amazon Germany in May 2005, after being featured during the broadcast during an inset with the contest hosts Maria Efrosinina and Pavlo Shylko. O'Connor's second Eurovision work, ''The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official Celebration,'' was published by Carlton Books in April 2015 (). The book was also published in German and Swedish editions. Since 2012, O'Connor has been the special host of San Marino RTV's Eurovision coverage, presenting the preview shows. In 2013, he was the first spokesperson of the final. On 17 May, O'Connor presented a '' Eurovision PopMaster'' on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

, with Ken Bruce and

Paddy O'Connell Guy Patrick "Paddy" O'Connell (born 11 March 1966, in Guildford, Surrey) is an English television and radio presenter. He presents BBC Radio 4's '' Broadcasting House'' programme and '' Newsnight''. He is also an occasional presenter of the '' ...

as the two contestants. In 2014, together with his CreativeLive co-host Jamarie Milkovic, O'Connor provided English commentary for San Marino RTV live from

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, and did so alone in 2015 for the second semifinal. During the Eurovision finals, he also reported for

ABC News Australia ABC News, also known as ABC News and Current Affairs, is a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The service covers both local and world affairs, broadcasting both nationally as ABC News, and across the Asia- ...

, ABC Radio National Australia and once more guested on The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2 and

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One every morning from 6:00am. It is also broadcast on the UK feed of BBC News channel on weekends. The simulcast is presented live, ...

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

. In 2018, O'Connor was one of the judges for '' 1in360'', the talent show to choose San Marino's entry for the '' Eurovision Song Contest 2018'' in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. He again presented, as the spokesperson, the preview shows for San Marino RTV. In celebration of the contest returning to the UK after an absence of twenty-five years, O'Connor was chosen to be San Marino's voting spokesman for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2023 The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Liverpool, United Kingdom, as , the winner of the with the song "Stefania (song), Stefania" by Kalush Orchestra, was unable to host the eve ...

held in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Radio

Until the station closed, O'Connor was the American correspondent for digital station Gaydar Radio in the UK, reporting for the ''Neil and Debbie Breakfast Show'', covering live events including the

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Janua ...

s, the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

s, and the

Oscars The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...

. He also reported on the gay march held on May 17, 2009, in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

for

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

. O'Connor has regularly reported for

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

in New York, and ERT in Athens to the UK, and has been a guest on

BBC World News BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...

and

BBC News 24 The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air Public broadcasting, public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London, West End of ...

on TV and "Today" on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

with

John Humphrys Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) is a Welsh people, Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter of the ''BBC Nine O'Clock News, Nine O'Clock News'', the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until ...

's ''Steve Wright in the Afternoon'' with host Steve Wright and actress

Brooke Shields Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress. A child model starting at the age of 11 months, Shields gained widespread notoriety at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film ''Pretty Baby (1978 film), Pretty Baby ...

on Radio. He has also contributed to many other

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

programs, including

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

, ''The Big Toe Show'' on BBC Radio 7,

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

, and numerous local BBC Radio stations including guest spots with Nicky Campbell, Judi Spiers, Richard Bacon, Paul Henley, Ted Robbins,

Liz Kershaw Elizabeth Marguerita Mary Kershaw (born 30 July 1958) is an English radio broadcaster. She is one of the longest serving female national radio DJs in the UK, celebrating 30 years on national BBC Radio in 2017. Career After graduating from the ...

and featured on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

and LBC Radio. UK

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's Jon Snow interviewed O'Connor live from Chicago when news of a scandal relating to the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 broke in May 2008. In Ireland, he has guested on Key 101 FM Radio with Eurovision winners Dana and Paul Harrington,

RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...

's '' Rattlebag'', Newstalk Radio and regularly contributes to

BBC Radio Ulster BBC Radio Ulster is a Northern Ireland, Northern Irish national radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. Acc ...

. In Australia, O'Connor has become a regular contributor to various ABC Radio National programs, including the now defunct ''Perspective'' program, hosted by producer Sue Clark, providing commentary on British and International Politics as well as popular culture issues. Among other stories, O'Connor reported on the underlying racism of the 2008 US General Election,

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

's accession as British Prime Minister and the international media coverage of the

2007 Australian federal election The 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Australian Senate, Senate were up for electi ...

, for the program. He has also regularly appeared on ABC's ''

Radio National Breakfast ''Radio National Breakfast'' and sometimes shortened to ''Breakfast'', is a national early morning news program in Australia, broadcast since 2005. The program is broadcast live in the eastern states, and on delay in other states, on the Austr ...

'' Show with Fran Kelly and many local radio stations in Australia and was the featured guest on an hour-long special on the

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

ABC station.

Television

In May 2010, O'Connor appeared with Justin Lee Collins on UK Channel Five, advising Collins on his quest to represent a country at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2010 The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Oslo, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song "Fairytale (Alexander Rybak song), Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. Organise ...

in the show ''Eurovision: A Song For Justin''. During the 2010 contest in Oslo, Norway, O'Connor appeared on Aljazeera TV,

BBC News Channel The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...

with James Dagwell on ''E24'' and after a one-on-one interview, won '' PopMaster'' on BBC Radio 2's Ken Bruce show, playing against

in a Eurovision spoof of the regular feature, a feat he repeated in 2012 against the BBC Moscow Correspondent Steven Rosenberg. He was also featured on

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British news television channel of ITV (TV network), ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. ITN, Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the netwo ...

and BBC Local Radio live from Oslo. In 2011, O'Connor was featured in the documentary '' The Secret History of Eurovision'', shown in

More4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content The i ...

in the UK. Since 2013, O'Connor has been the lead on-screen host for the educational broadcaster CreativeLive, fronting a variety of multi-day live broadcasts from the platforms San Francisco studios. At the end of 2014, it was announced on Twitter and PBS.org that O'Connor was recording a series for PBS on international architecture and was filming the first episode in Kuala Lumpur and San Francisco with César Pelli as the subject. The six-part series (also featuring Norman Foster and I.M.Pei) aired across the US in the summer of 2015. In August 2015, O'Connor was recording a travel series focussing on India, Nepal and Myanmar. In February 2020, O'Connor became the host of ''FacebookLive'', broadcast bi-weekly on the social network's blueprint platform. In May 2021, O'Connor became the host of the irregular corporate online newscast ''The Zero Trust Exchange'', produced by

ZScaler Zscaler, Inc. () is an American cloud security company based in San Jose, California. The company offers cloud-based services to protect enterprise networks and data. History Zscaler was founded in 2007 by Jay Chaudhry and K. Kailash. The com ...

. From February 2022, O'Connor became the news anchor for NBC and CBS Northern California channels

and KVIQ-LD. In July 2023, he became the main news anchor for CBS station

in Washington.

Newspaper

O'Connor's written work has been published in the United Kingdom in (among others) the ''

Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

'', ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'', ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

'', ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised ...

'', ''Northern Woman'' and '' The News of the World''. In the United States, he had a syndicated column originating in San Francisco, primarily published in ''Playlands'' magazine, a local guide to entertainment and has been interviewed by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

'', the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

'' and other American daily papers. He has been profiled in ''Meetings & Conventions Magazine''. For the 60th anniversary of Eurovision, ''The Telegraph'' ran O'Connor's (accurate) predictions for the result in the run-up to the competition. The Star also ran a detailed discussion of the UK's contest chances for 2015. Previously, Oikotimes.com ran a series of seven articles written by O'Connor in January 2011, tracing the history of Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest. Concurrently, the UK ''

'', reporting on the BBC's selection of the group

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

to sing for Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, quoted from an article written by O'Connor for ESCInsight.com. In 2006, O'Connor was featured in the UK editions of '' Metro'' for their "60 Seconds Interview" column. In 2007, O'Connor contributed on camera items for both the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

and

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

for broadcast, in addition to video spots on AOL's Big Story. Online, he has been interviewed by ESCToday.com and Oikotimes.comEurovision Song Contest , Belgrade (Serbia) 2008 – Articles
/ref> about the

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, John Kennedy 1964 births Living people CBS News people NBC News people English male journalists English people of Irish descent English radio personalities English expatriates in the United States