Chris Wallace’s Exit Leaves a Gaping Hole in Fox’s News Division

The veteran anchor will host a new show on CNN’s forthcoming streaming service, a move that reflects a broader shift in TV news.

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace moderates the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on September 29, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio.by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Longtime Fox News anchor Chris Wallace sent shockwaves through the industry on Sunday as he announced it would be “the last time, and I say this with real sadness, we will meet like this.” After nearly two decades hosting Fox News Sunday, Wallace, a decorated journalist and the first Fox News anchor to moderate a presidential debate, told viewers “it’s been a great ride” and noted Fox management had kept their promise to “never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked.” But, Wallace added, “I want to try something new.”

New indeed: hours later, rival CNN announced in a press release that Wallace is joining CNN+, the streaming service launching early next year, as the host of a weekday program featuring “interviews with newsmakers across politics, business, sports and culture.” CNN chief Jeff Zucker said the hire “speaks volumes about our commitment to journalism and CNN+,” while Wallace voiced excitement for “the new freedom and flexibility streaming affords.” In addition to his show, Wallace will be involved in covering election nights and nominating conventions at CNN+, according to the New York Times.

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Wallace, the son of legendary broadcaster Mike Wallace, spent decades at ABC and NBC, where he once hosted Meet the Press, before joining Fox News in 2003. “I’m a straight-news man,” Wallace said at the time to (his later Fox colleague) Howard Kurtz, who wrote that “Fox seems to be inching toward more conventional journalism.” But Wallace’s departure from Fox News—where his contract was said to be expiring, despite a reported offer for a multiyear extension—comes at a time in which nonpartisan journalists are already in short supply and as right-wing hosts, like Tucker Carlson, use their primetime perches to downplay the January 6 insurrection and COVID crisis, undermine vaccine efforts, and promote the racist “replacement theory.”

The veteran anchor’s willingness, at times, to push back, against colleagues‘s claims set him apart from the rest of Fox, where pro-Trump and right-wing culture war content dominates. (Shep Smith, who also challenged Donald Trump’s lies, left in 2019 after 23 years at the network.) Wallace was known for grilling both Democrats and Republicans, including Trump, who typically got tossed softballs by sycophantic Fox hosts. As the Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan wrote in 2020, Wallace’s tough interview that year “serves as a journalistic fig leaf for Fox News—something the network’s brass and public relations staff can point to in order to counter the criticism that Fox News is nothing but cheerleader for the president.” Losing Wallace, whom the Post notes Fox has often highlighted as an attestation of its seriousness amid incendiary, conspiracy-driven opinion content, is “like a death in the family” at Fox, one source told CNN’s Brian Stelter. Until a permanent replacement is found for Wallace, anchors such as Bret Baier, Bill Hemmer, John Roberts, and Dana Perino will reportedly rotate in.

Wallace’s announcement comes as the latest in a string of high-profile exits shaking up the TV world. MSNBC’s Brian Williams bid a farewell of his own to viewers last week, leaving the network with yet another talent headache amid top-rated host Rachel Maddow’s expected switch to a weekly format sometime next year. Top brass at CNN are also grappling with their prime-time lineup since firing Chris Cuomo earlier this month, after the star was revealed to be more involved than previously known in his brother Andrew Cuomo’s defense against sexual harassment allegations, as well as an unrelated accusation of sexual misconduct leveled against him by a former colleague. (A Chris Cuomo spokesperson has denied the sexual misconduct allegation.)

Cable news companies face a significant challenge in filling gaping holes in their lineups at a moment when shifting consumption patterns have changed what it means to be a TV news star. Last year was “the worst in history for cord-cutting” and 2021 isn’t looking much better, according to Axios. “In light of the decline of linear television,” the outlet notes, hires such as Wallace show how mainstream outlets “are investing heavily to lure talent to streaming alternatives.” CNN reportedly offered Kasie Hunt, whom they poached from NBC News for an anchor and analyst gig at CNN+, a salary over one million dollars, and the company was said over the summer to be hiring hundreds of producers, contributors, and developers for its standalone streaming news operation. Other networks getting in on the streaming wars include NBC News, which has already filled most of the 200-plus job openings it posted over the summer for its new streaming service, per Axios; and CBS News, whose streaming service recently underwent a name change (from CBSN to CBS News) to unify the organization’s broadcast and digital operations under one concept.

Wallace highlighted how moving from traditional TV to streaming opens up “new ways to tell stories” after decades in broadcast. Fox, too, has expanded into streaming with Fox Nation, a paid subscription service that bills itself as offering “exclusive shows, documentaries, and news stories that celebrate America.” Arguably the best-known original programming to come out of the effort is Patriot Purge, Carlson’s special on the January 6 riot, which features debunked conspiracy theories about the insurrection’s origins without any factual rebuttal. Two longtime Fox News commentators, Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg, resigned last month over the docuseries and the broader radicalization of Fox News that it represents. Perhaps Patriot Purge played a role in driving Wallace to CNN for his next endeavor: the political anchor was said to be among those on the news side who shared their objections to the documentary with Fox’s top brass.