In 2018, he became a contributor to the literary pop culture website, PleaseKillMe.com.[12] In December 2021, he began to contribute written and video pieces toLegs McNeil’s literary pop culture website, Legsville.com.[13]
After graduation fromFairfield University in 1978,[14] Kearns worked as a reporter and editor for the Acorn Press, a chain of newspapers in southernConnecticut andWestchester, New York. He moved toManhattan, where he was hired on the assignment desk atWNEW-TV's10 O'Clock News. Kearns also wrote forCBS News'Nightwatch andCBS Morning News. In October 1983, he joinedWNBC-TV’sNews 4 New York team as a newswriter and producer of the eleven o’clock newscast.[15] While at NBC, he freelanced as a writer forSpin magazine.[16][17][18]
Kearns joined the showA Current Affair in 1989.[19] Kearns also worked on to the rival showHard Copy, as managing editor and producer.[20] In 1994, he was senior producer ofPremier Story.[21] Kearns (and his coverage of the fall of theBerlin Wall) was included inMaury Povich's 1991 memoir,Current Affairs: A Life on the Edge.[22]
Kearns left tabloid television and began writingTabloid Baby in 1996. A combination memoir and exposé, the book was published in November 1999 by Hambleton-Hill's Celebrity Books imprint.[19]
He appeared on-camera in theReelz nonfiction special program,Kardashian: The Man Who Saved OJ Simpson.[23] He was executive producer of the Reelz nonfiction specialEl Chapo & Sean Penn: Bungle In The Jungle.[24] Kearns was also director, writer and executive producer ofHollywood Animal Crusaders forAnimal Planet[25] and co-producer of the HBO documentaryPanic.[26] He was producer of the Fox Television special,When Good Pets Go Bad 2,[27] and executive producer and showrunner of series including the syndicatedStrange Universe,[28] TruTV’sGuinness World Record Unleashed[29] andConspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.[30] He was a creator and executive producer ofBreaking the Ice, a docuseries following the first diverse, competitive synchronized ice skating team.[31][32] The series premiered on WE tv in 2023 and streams on AMC's ALLBLK platform.[33] Kearns cowrote, produced and edited the 2025 nonfiction film,Pusherman: Frank Lucas and the True Story of American Gangster,[34][35] directed by Legs McNeil.
Kearns directed the nonfiction film,El Viaje Musical de Ezekiel Montanez: TheChris Montez Story, which opened on August 15, 2009 at the 35th annualThe Fest For Beatles Fans in Chicago.[36] Kearns produced the nonfiction film comedyHigh There.[37][38]High There and the Montez film were produced through his Good Story Productions production company.[39]
In 2000, Kearns formed the production companyFrozen Television (laterFrozen Pictures) with producerBrett Hudson.[40] Kearns was an executive producer onAll the Presidents' Movies for Bravo[41][42] andThe Secret History of Rock ’n’ Roll with Gene Simmons[43] andAdults Only: The Secret History of The Other Hollywood for Court TV.[44]
With Hudson and Albert S. Ruddy, Kearns wrote and produced the 2006 Twentieth Century-Fox film,Cloud 9,[45] starring Burt Reynolds, which was a joint production of Frozen and The Ruddy Morgan Organization.[46]
