#CHANNEL 5 NEWS ANCHOR RESIGNS FREE#

“I am thrilled to join CNN+,” Wallace said in a statement. According to CNN’s press release, Wallace will host a weekday show featuring interviews with newsmakers “across politics, business, sports and culture.” That adventure will take place at CNN, where Wallace will become an anchor for CNN+, a streaming service launching in early 2022. He described his time at Fox as a “great ride” and said he was “ready for a new adventure.” “It is the last time, and I say this with real sadness, we will meet like this,” Wallace said. Wallace made the stunning announcement of his departure at the end of “Fox News Sunday,” the flagship weekly political program that he has moderated since 2003. “The legacy of ‘Fox News Sunday’ will continue.Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, one of the few high-profile news personalities who retained a reputation of integrity as Fox leaned hard into right-wing and conspiratorial programming, announced Sunday that he is departing the network and joining CNN+ to host a weekday show. “We are extremely proud of our journalism and the stellar team that Chris Wallace was a part of for 18 years,” Fox said on Sunday. But he turned down an offer for a multiyear extension and pay raise to leave for CNN. In contrast to when Smith left, Wallace was coming to the end of his contract with Fox. His announcement came as a surprise even guests on his show Sunday hadn't been tipped off they were seeing his finale.

#CHANNEL 5 NEWS ANCHOR RESIGNS FREE#

“I have been free to report to the best of my ability, to cover the stories I think are important, to hold our country's leaders to account,” he said on Sunday. His track record had given Wallace a large measure of independence at Fox, despite the network's overall tilt. Bret Baier remains at Fox as host of a Washington-based evening news program.

Shepard Smith left in 2019 and is now doing a news show at CNBC. Wallace was one of a prominent triumvirate of straight-news anchors at Fox who offered a contrast to popular opinion hosts such as Carlson and Sean Hannity. Two Fox News contributors, Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, cited that program in choosing to quit the network. 6 Capitol insurrection, “Patriot Purge,” aired on Fox's streaming service. Wallace had expressed his concern about the strident opinion programming to Fox executives multiple times, including recently after Tucker Carlson's documentary on the Jan. The network ousted two news executives involved in the controversial - but correct - Election Night declaration that Biden had won in Arizona, a call that infuriated Republican Trump. Wallace generally co-existed with Fox's opinion side and infrequently took them on publicly, although in 2017 he said it was “bad form” when opinion hosts bashed the media.īut he had grown privately frustrated with the overall tenor at Fox, where conservative opinion hosts have been elevated and amplified, particularly after the network's ratings took a brief hit following the 2020 election. Kurtz said it was “a major loss for Fox News, no question about it.” “He is the most tenacious interviewer in the television business, based on intense preparation and plain old persistence,” said Howard Kurtz, host of Fox's “Media Buzz.' “He has the kind of seasoned judgment that only comes from so many years of covering political issues and he may be the best debate moderator ever.” The debate he moderated last year went off the rails when then-President Donald Trump repeatedly interrupted Democratic challenger Joe Biden. He was the first Fox News personality to moderate a presidential debate, doing it in 20. Methodical and never showy - in contrast to his father Mike, the legendary “60 Minutes” reporter - Chris Wallace was known for his willingness to ask hard questions of all guests no matter their politics. Wallace was a veteran broadcast network newsman, working at both ABC and NBC News, before the late Roger Ailes lured him to Fox with the promise of his own Sunday show. “Eighteen years ago, the bosses here at Fox promised me they would never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked. “It is the last time, and I say this with real sadness, we will meet like this,” Wallace, who is 74, said on his show, which airs on the Fox network and is later rerun on Fox News Channel. Wallace delivered the surprising news that he was leaving at the end of the “Fox News Sunday” show he moderates, and within two hours CNN announced he was joining its new streaming service as an anchor. NEW YORK - Veteran anchor Chris Wallace has left Fox News after 18 years for CNN, dealing a significant blow to Fox's news operation at a time that it has been overshadowed by the network's opinion side.

Channel 5 news anchor resigns