Many people have wondered if Nancy Chen and Julie Chen are related, since they both work for CBS News and share the same surname. However, the answer is no, they are not related by blood or marriage. Here are some facts about the two journalists and their careers.
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Nancy Chen: A Rising Star in Journalism
Nancy Chen is an American television journalist and correspondent with CBS News in New York. She joined the network in 2020 after working as a weekday evening anchor for WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C.
Nancy Chen was born in Texas and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She attended Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, studied Chinese at Peking University in Beijing, and graduated as a Trustee Scholar from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with a degree in international relations.
She began her career as a print reporter writing for the Tulsa World for three years. During college, she worked as a web producer at KABC-TV in Los Angeles and was involved in production for NBC Sports in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics. She began her broadcast journalist career at KSBY in San Luis Obispo, California as a multimedia journalist. She subsequently worked for WHDH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts where she covered the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the 2015 Super Bowl, the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 2013 EF5 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, and the Boston Marathon bombing.
She has covered national stories including the criminal trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Waukesha Christmas parade attack, the 2022 Bronx apartment fire, the Omicron wave in New York City, and the 2022 Buffalo shooting. Her work has been featured on CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell, CBS Saturday Morning, CBS News Sunday Morning, and Face the Nation. She also fills in as anchor for CBS Mornings, CBS Saturday Morning, and CBS News, CBS ‘ streaming news channel. In 2022, CBS This Morning won an Emmy Award at the 43rd News and Documentary Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Live News Program” where Chen was listed as a correspondent.
She has won two Emmy Awards from the National Capital division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences during her time at WJLA-TV, one of which was for coverage of the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting. She also hosted a reoccurring franchise titled “Hero 24/7” that highlighted volunteers in the Washington, D.C. community.
Julie Chen Moonves: A Veteran Host and Producer
Julie Chen Moonves is an American television personality, news anchor, and producer for CBS. She has been the host of the American version of the CBS reality-television program Big Brother since its debut in July 2000.
Julie Chen was born in New York City to Chinese immigrants. Her mother grew up in Rangoon, Burma and her father was born in China and fled to Taiwan following the Chinese Civil War. Her maternal grandfather was a wealthy polygamist with nine wives and 11 children who grew up “dirt poor” in Fujian province of China. Julie has two older sisters, Gladys and Victoria.
She attended junior high school in the Whitestone area of Queens and graduated from St. Francis Preparatory School in 1987. She attended the University of Southern California and graduated in 1991, majoring in broadcast journalism and English.
One of her earlier jobs came in June 1990, interning at CBS Morning News alongside Andy Cohen – the series which she would anchor a decade later – where she answered phones and copied faxes for distribution. The following year, while still in school, she worked for ABC NewsOne for one season as a desk assistant. She was subsequently promoted to work as a producer for the next three years. The following year, she relocated to Dayton, Ohio, to work as a local news reporter for WDTN-TV, from 1995 to 1997.
In 2015, Chen revealed on The Talk that during her time in Dayton her news director had told her that she would never become a news anchor because of her “Asian eyes”. She underwent blepharoplasty surgery to make her eyes appear larger after being told by an agent that she would not be able to work at a big market because she looked “too Chinese”.
She returned to CBS News as an anchor on The Early Show from 2002 to 2010. She also hosted the CBS reality show The Early Show from 2002 to 2010. She also hosted the CBS reality show The Amazing Race from 2009 to 2010. She was a co-host and the moderator of the CBS Daytime talk show The Talk from 2010 to 2018, until she left the show following multiple sexual assault and sexual harassment allegations against her husband Les Moonves, who was the CEO of CBS Corporation at the time.
She married Les Moonves in 2004 and they have one son, Charlie, born in 2009. She began using her married name with the September 13, 2018 episode of Big Brother, signing off with, “I’m Julie Chen Moonves, goodnight.” This broke her established pattern where previously she would sign off simply as Julie Chen.
In 2018, Chen Moonves authored her first children’s book, When I Grow Up, dedicated to her son, Charlie.
Conclusion
Nancy Chen and Julie Chen are both successful and respected journalists who work for CBS News, but they are not related in any way. They have different backgrounds, experiences, and achievements in their careers. They are both examples of Asian American women who have made an impact in the media industry.
