Chris Wallace is leaving Fox News Channel, he announced on his program Sunday morning, and will join the CNN Plus streaming-video outlet, a move that abruptly sunders the cable-news outlet’s connection with one of its most recognized and independent journalists.
Wallace delivered the news himself, in the last minutes of his “Fox News Sunday,” which he has anchored for nearly two decades on the Fox Corporation-owned outlet. “I want to try something new, to go beyond politics to all the things I’m interested in. I’m ready for a new adventure. And I hope you’ll check it out,” said Wallace. The words will be the last he utters on the program.
Bill Hemmer and John Roberts are both straight news reporters. There are others as well, but I don’t see much of Fox News, so I don’t know how fair they are.
Given that CNN just fired Chris Cuomo, that leaves his slot wide open. I wonder why Chris Wallace didn’t take that high profile slot and instead is going to a streaming-only program that’s certainly much lower profile (and will be watched by not many).
This isn’t CNN, but CNN+, a new streaming service. It’s not clear why people would pay for it, given that the free CNN is shedding viewers like a dog sheds fur in spring.
Maybe people will pay extra for a service free of sexual predators.
Chris Wallace doesn’t want to take on a one-hour, five day a week program
CNN doesn’t see Wallace as a fit for that program because he’s (take your pick) 74 years old, male, white, more of a news/interviewer-type than an opinion-type, etc.
CNN fears viewers will reject Wallace because of his association with Fox News
The CNN+ gig is only temporary while CNN and Wallace determine whether they’re a good match
CNN has big plans for the former Cuomo hour, but they aren’t fully formed yet, and they don’t want to throw Wallace into the slot before CNN knows what they want to do with it, and risk the blowback if they were to later demote him.
Having some knowledge of the TV news business I think we can narrow the list down to - Chris Wallace is 74 years old. Everything else is a factor, but you don’t rebuild your prime time schedule around that.
" I just no longer felt comfortable with the programming at Fox."
“I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” Mr. Wallace said in his first extensive interview about his decision to leave. “But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”
Given that I can tune into CNN on cable when I want, or go to their public website, why would I want to pay for the streaming service? Who exactly did they think would do so?
The management of Warner Bros Discovery agree that there is little value in CNN+, given that they announced they’re shutting down the service after only three weeks.