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Jann Carl, BJ '82

Jann Carl, BJ '82, came to Columbia, Mo., looking for a hometown. Having moved around a lot as a kid, she had never really established roots. Carl found a spark for journalism in Moline, Ill., where she wrote stories for her high school newspaper about getting into discos with fake IDs and the high turnover rate of the local zoo directors.

Carl had found a direction as she decided on college, but she still wanted roots. With grandparents in Columbia, a few cousins attending Mizzou and access to the renowned Missouri School of Journalism, Carl finally found her opportunity.

"I thought, 'You know, this is the place I'm meant to be with the J-School here," Carl said. "I was kind of looking for a hometown, and Columbia is the closest thing to a hometown I have."

And so began the career of the jet-setting, Emmy Award-winning reporter who has traveled six continents and interviewed some of the biggest names in the news and entertainment business. All she wanted was a hometown, but what she got was the world.

Building a Career

Carl is a weekend anchor and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, the No. 1 syndicated entertainment newsmagazine in the world. In her 12 years with the show, she has interviewed the likes of Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, among hundreds of other stars and pop culture figures.

Back at the Missouri School of Journalism, however, Carl never really planned on becoming an entertainment reporter. In fact, she had decided long before college that she would be the first female reporter on 60 Minutes. At the time, entertainment reporting was not prevalent in the hard-news dominated industry. When Diane Sawyer beat her to that goal in 1984, Carl decided she wanted to be Jane Pauley.

As a broadcast major, Carl worked for KOMU-TV, where she said real television reporting made the difference in her career.

"I was so grateful for the experience of being the one-man band and having to go out and shoot my own B roll and shoot my own interview," Carl said. "Shooting your own standup was difficult, but it can be done. I still wear that little secret badge of honor that I know how to do all that."

Missouri Journalism professors such as her adviser Dave Dugan emphasized the hands-on experience, Carl said, because they had been out in the real world and knew what it took.

"They told us their war stories and some of the realities out there that we wouldn't have been able to read out of a book," Carl said.

By being somewhat of a hometown girl, however, Carl learned an even more important lesson about the impact of journalism.

"Because my grandparents lived in Columbia, I realized that this isn't just for class. This isn't just for my degree. This isn't just for my career. The story that I'm doing today affects them," Carl said. "My grandparents watched Channel 8 before I got here, and they're going to watch Channel 8 after I leave. But it just really hit home on the impact that I was making. They're tuning into see what's happening in their world and their community."

The lessons Carl learned at KOMU paid off when upon graduation, she received a rare offer to work at WLS-TV in Chicago, the No. 3 market in the United States. While her peers headed off into smaller markets, Carl had to work side-by-side with much more experienced reporters.

"I remember thanking my lucky stars, and God, and Walter Williams everyday that I had had my training at Mizzou's J-School," Carl said. "I was able to do the job even though I lacked years of experience."

After getting her feet wet in Chicago, Carl moved on to KABC-TV in Los Angeles, the No. 2 market in the country. She anchored the newsmagazine show "Eye on L.A.," traveling six continents in two-and-a-half years on different assignments. She then served eight years as a news anchor for KTLA-TV's "News at Ten," where she won three Los Angeles Emmy Awards for her coverage.

Carl had become the successful newswoman that she thought she wanted to be in high school; all the while, she was coming to an important realization.

"I knew that I was probably more geared to GMA (Good Morning America) than World News Tonight," Carl said. "I knew that I was more personality-driven."

That, combined with an obstacle that many women in broadcasting endured during that time, led Carl to start looking for a new opportunity.

"It was one of those situations where the anchorman, who had been there for decades, read 80 percent of the newscast, and I read 20 percent," Carl said. "I said, 'Wait a minute--I have Emmys, I have a journalism degree, and I've been a street reporter. Haven't I earned a few stripes here?' It was never going to change. Then I heard of the opening at Entertainment Tonight."

Life with the Stars

Carl joined Entertainment Tonight in 1995 as a correspondent. In addition to covering the stars, Carl has achieved her own star status in the industry. She has appeared in several movies, served as a guest judge on UPN's "America's Next Top Model" and has co-hosted several award shows and television specials.

Because news in the entertainment industry changes quickly, Carl said she doesn't have a typical day. She rarely has a schedule or regular hours; instead, she's ready at any moment to go on assignment, whether it be covering the star-studded Italy wedding of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise in 2006 or attending a number of movie premieres. Even though Carl has met hundreds of celebrities, she said actor Will Smith is still her favorite.

"He takes joy in what he does, even talking to the media, whereas a lot of people don't find any joy in that," Carl said. "He makes my job so easy."

Another favorite was musician Barry White, who granted her an intimate interview about his rise to fame after serving jail time as a youth.

"My favorite assignments are when it's a one-on-one sit down interview of length, and they're not going to sit down with 60 other journalists in a two-day period like a movie junket," Carl said. "I like finding out what makes that person tick. That's my favorite interview."

Back to Her Roots

Surprisingly, Carl is just one of a contingent of Midwesterners on Entertainment Tonight. Longtime anchor Mary Hart hails from South Dakota, and co-anchor Mark Steines is from Iowa. Additionally, executive producer Linda Bell Blue also has Missouri Journalism training, having graduated in 1978.

"Linda Bell Blue came to the J-School, found her passion, got good training and took off into the world and became hugely successful," Carl said. "It's partly because she, like myself, had such a great base to build from with her training here at Mizzou."

Besides the top-level training, Carl said there is a special quality about Midwesterners that might be a factor in hers and others' success.

"To be a really good journalist, you have to be interested in people and what affects them," Carl said. "I find that we (Midwesterners) are somewhat disarming. When people sit down and talk to me, I think they're instantly at ease."

Carl regularly returns to Missouri to give back to the School that helped launch her career. She had hosted several events for the University over the years and continues to support the School and University's mission. You can blame it all on her roots, but no matter where life takes her, Carl always comes back home to Columbia.