After graduating from Columbia, Watts returned to North Carolina and began her career as a general assignment reporter at WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina. She later worked at WNBC, where she was nominated for an Emmy, and WABC-TV in New York as an anchor of a weekly political forum and reporter. In 1987, she began working as a host of "Attitudes", a talk show on Lifetime Television. The next year, she took a job on the newsmagazine "Inside Edition" as a senior correspondent, weekend anchor and producer. King World Productions, the syndicator of Inside Edition and also "The Oprah Winfrey Show", then asked her to start her own talk show. "Rolonda" aired for nearly four seasons from January 17, 1994 to September 1997. Watts was also supervising producer and one of the owners of the show. In a 2003 interview with "Soap Opera Digest", Watts said she folded the show rather than lose her integrity. "Audiences were saying, 'Well, that was really nice of you to be so respectful, but where's Jerry ?' We had to make a tough decision, either we go that route or we find something else to do."