Jesse Watters gets weekly program on Fox

Fox News’s Jesse Watters is getting his own weekly program on the channel starting this weekend, the network announced on Thursday.

Watters, 38, had been hosting monthly specials known as “Watters’ World.” It has been upgraded to a weekly offering on Saturdays at 8 p.m.

The show will feature the man-on-the-street style interviews about pop culture and politics that helped make “The O’Reilly Factor” producer a household name to many Fox viewers. 

“I am humbled that FOX News Channel has given me this opportunity. I look forward to viewers entering my world more often and wouldn’t be in this position if it weren’t for Bill,” Watters said in a statement.

Watters also serves as a correspondent, producer and managing editor for FoxNation.com.

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He joined Fox in 2002 as a production assistant before joining Bill O’Reilly’s program the following year.

Watters’s man-on-the-street interview segments featured weekly on O’Reilly’s show have ignited some controversy in the past.

In October, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed a Watters segment on a visit to Chinatown.

“The vile, racist behavior of Fox’s Jesse Watters in Chinatown has no place in our city. @FoxNews — keep this guy off TV,” the Democratic mayor tweeted at the time.

In the segment, Watters asked people in the neighborhood if people in China call “Chinese food just ‘food’” and if one Chinese resident knew karate.

After widespread backlash, Watters tweeted an apology with an explanation.  

“My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense. As a political humorist, the Chinatown segment was intended to be a light piece, as all Watters’ World segments are,” he wrote.

“Watters’ World” premieres as a weekly show this Saturday at 8 p.m.