Fox News host Chris Wallace announces sudden resignation after 18 years

Chris Wallace, the longtime news anchor of Fox News Sunday and one of the most respected news hosts on television, announced his sudden resignation from the network Sunday morning.

“After 18 years I have decided to leave Fox,” Wallace, 74, said at the end of Sunday’s episode of Fox News Sunday. “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.”

Wallace is headed to CNN, where he will become an anchor for the network’s new streaming service, CNN+, which is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2022.

“It is not often that a news organization gets the opportunity to bring someone of Chris Wallace’s caliber on board. He is as fine a journalist as there is in our business,” Jeff Zucker, chairman of WarnerMedia news and sports, said in a statement. Wallace said that after decades working on broadcast television and cable news, he’s excited to explore the world of streaming.

“I look forward to the new freedom and flexibility streaming affords in interviewing major figures across the news landscape — and finding new ways to tell stories,” Wallace said.

» READ MORE: Two Fox News commentators quit over Tucker Carlson’s ‘irresponsible’ Capitol insurrection special

Wallace, known for his tough interviews and his unbiased approach to news coverage, has hosted Fox News Sunday since its inception in 2003. Prior to joining Fox News, Wallace served as the anchor of NBC Nightly News, the moderator of Meet the Press, and a correspondent on ABC Primetime. He was also the first Fox News anchor to moderate a presidential debate in 2016 — the final face-off between former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“We are extremely proud of our journalism and the stellar team that Chris Wallace was a part of for 18 years,” the network said in a statement.

Fox News Sunday will be hosted by a rotating list of news anchor until a permanent host is named. One Fox News source says the list of fill-in hosts is likely to include news anchors Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, John Roberts, Shannon Bream, Neil Cavuto, and Bill Hemmer.

Wallace’s sudden departure comes weeks after two longtime Fox News contributors — Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes — resigned in protest over Tucker Carlson’s recent special on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which they described as “irresponsible” and “dangerous.”

Wallace and Baier raised their objections to Carlson’s three-part series internally to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Jay Wallace, the network’s president of news, according to NPR’s David Folkenflik. While Fox News has pointed out the special aired on its streaming service, Fox Nation, Carlson has been allowed to promote it on his popular Fox News show and on the network’s morning show, Fox & Friends.

On Twitter, Baier said it was an “honor” to work alongside Wallace and is sad to see him leave the network.

Wallace, the son of legendary 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace, has been a target of Trump and his followers due to his willingness to ask tough questions on a network where the most popular hosts are outspoken loyalists of the former president.

During an interview with the former president last July, Wallace pressed Trump on an easy cognitive test he bragged about passing and pushed him on the death toll of COVID-19, to which Trump famously replied, “It is what it is.”

Wallace also scolded Trump over his repeated interruptions during the first presidential debate against current President Joe Biden, condemned Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election, and didn’t allow lawmakers who lied about the election results on his show.

“Well, there were plenty of people, in the Congress, who were the leaders of challenging it who I have just not had on the show ever since then,” Wallace said during a September appearance on CBS’s The Late Show. “I have purposefully not had them on because, frankly, I don’t want to hear their crap.”