NEW YORK (AP) – Veteran anchor Chris Wallace signed off his “Fox News Sunday” show after 18 years to join CNN’s new streaming service, dealing a blow to Fox’s news operation at a time its opinion side has become preeminent.
CNN’s announcement that Wallace will join CNN+ as an anchor came within two hours of his last Fox show. The streaming service is expected to debut in early 2022.
“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. “Eighteen years ago, the bosses here at Fox promised me they would never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked. And they kept that promise.”
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. Methodical and never showy – in contrast to his father Mike, the legendary “60 Minutes” reporter – Chris Wallace was known for his methodical preparation and willingness to ask hard questions of all guests.
He was the first Fox News personality to moderate a presidential debate, doing it in 2016 and 2020. The debate he moderated last year went off the rails when then-President Donald Trump repeatedly interrupted Democratic challenger Joe Biden.