Third Rail With Ozy Announces Guests For Television Series To Include Mark Cuban, Gov. Jeb Bush, Katie Couric, Amber Rose, Malcolm Gladwell, Neil De Grasse Tyson, Rep Maxine Waters, Mo Rocca, Adam Grant, Eddie Huang, And More

NEW YORK, August 25, 2017 - The new PBS prime-time, cross-platform debate program, Third Rail with OZY, has announced guests will include Mark Cuban, Gov. Jeb Bush, Katie Couric, Malcolm Gladwell, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Mo Rocca, Eddie Huang, Rep Maxine Waters, Marcus Samuelsson, Roxane Gay, Amber Rose, Lisa Bloom, Maria Teresa Kumar, Adam Grant, Grover Norquist, Van Jones, Gretchen Carlson, Jim Messina, Ana Navaro, Rep. Karen Bass, and more.  Carlos Watson, Emmy® Award-winning journalist and Editor in Chief of OZY.com, will host the seven-part series where guests will discuss and debate hot-button topics Fridays at 8:30pm ET, starting September 8, 2017 (check local listings).

Co-produced by WGBH Boston's Studio Six and OZY Media, and made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and The Pew Charitable Trusts, the series will broadcast on PBS and stream at OZY.com.

Intriguing, unexpected and enlightening, Third Rail with OZY promises to present new voices and valuable dialogue for the digital age. In a fresh addition to the PBS line-up, Watson will frame each week's half-hour show around a single, provocative question. Expert and celebrity guests will debate it in the studio each Friday, moderated by Watson, and informed by the weeklong social media conversation leading up to it. The series' underlying query in this contentious age is: can dialogue–informed by data–alter people's points of view?

Online and social media voting will be used to assess outcomes of each week's debate. Viewpoints posted on Facebook and Twitter, and on PBS.org, will be integrated and displayed as part of the program. To frame and inform the televised and digital discourse, the Marist Institute for Public Opinion will conduct advance, exclusive national surveys on each of Third Rail's featured questions. The Conversation US, a media outlet aggregating academic and research content, will be an editorial collaborator.

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Third Rail with OZY is a co-production of Studio Six at WGBH Boston and OZY Media. Host: Carlos Watson. Executive in Charge: Denise DiIanni. Executive Producers: Eugenia Harvey and Cameo George. Funding is provided by PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

About WGBH Boston 
WGBH Boston is one of America's preeminent public broadcasters and the largest producer of PBS broadcast and digital content, including Frontline, NOVA, American Experience, Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, as well as other children's, primetime, and lifestyle series. WGBH also is a major supplier of programming for public radio, and a leader in educational multimedia for the classroom, supplying content to PBS LearningMedia, a free national broadband service for teachers and students. WGBH is a pioneer in technologies and services that make media accessible to those with hearing or visual impairments. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards and Oscars. More information at wgbh.org.

About OZY Media 
With 25 million monthly unique users and 2 million subscribers, OZY brings readers "the new and the next," offering 100% original content, with a focus on the future, via unique OZY News, OZY Magazine, OZY TV and OZY Events products. Called "the new media magnet for the news hungry" by Fortune magazine, OZY's in-depth and high-quality journalism has attracted a number of high-profile media partners including The New York Times, NPR, PBS NewsHour, TED, The Financial Times, The Huffington Post and many more, as well as guest editors including Bill Gates, President Bill Clinton, and Prime Minister Tony Blair.  Founded in 2013 by Emmy award winning journalist Carlos Watson and co-founder Samir Rao, the OZY team is based in Mountain View, CA and backed by leading Silicon Valley investors including Laurene Powell Jobs, Ron Conway, David Drummond, Larry Sonsini and Dan Rosensweig and a significant investment from publishing giant Axel Springer.

About PBS 
PBS, with 350 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each month, PBS reaches nearly 100 million people through television and nearly 33 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS' broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry's most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS' premier children's TV programming and its website, pbskids.org, are parents' and teachers' most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the Internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile devices. pbs.org/pressroom

About CPB 
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of nearly 1,500 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services. For more information, visit CPB.org, follow us on Twitter @CPBmedia, Facebook,  and LinkedIn, and subscribe for email updates.