Chris Wallace departs Fox News after 18 years to anchor at CNN+

Veteran writer Chris Wallace said he’s leaving the Fox News Channel to articulation CNN’s caller streaming subscription service, CNN+.

The 74-year-old longtime Washington anchor announced the departure astatine the extremity of his “Fox News Sunday” program, saying he’s acceptable for a alteration aft astir 2 decades and wants to determination beyond the governmental absorption that has marked his career. Wallace was praised successful 2016 for his show moderating a statesmanlike statement betwixt Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and during the Trump administration, helium gained attraction for pushing backmost connected immoderate of the White House messaging.

“I look guardant to the caller state and flexibility streaming affords successful interviewing large figures crossed the quality scenery — and uncovering caller ways to archer stories,” the Chicago autochthonal said successful a consequent connection aboriginal released by CNN.

Wallace’s accomplishment would bring immoderate instant gravitas to the CNN+ streaming task conscionable arsenic the cablegram web is dealing with a ungraded that led to the firing of primetime anchor Chris Cuomo. CNN is 1 of the assets included successful AT&T Inc.’s merchantability of its media assets to Discovery Inc. The CNN+ task is acceptable to spell unrecorded aboriginal successful 2022.

At Fox, Wallace and erstwhile workfellow Shepard Smith were known for asking pugnacious questions of some governmental parties, helping Fox News antagonistic disapproval astir its right-leaning prime-time sentiment hosts. Wallace’s departure comes 2 years aft Smith abruptly near the network; Smith is present astatine CNBC.

Wallace has called himself an “equal accidental inquisitor” and has said that helium has the afloat enactment of Fox News executives. Fox volition regenerate Wallace with rotating quality anchors until a imperishable big is named.

“Eighteen years ago, the bosses present astatine Fox promised maine they would ne'er interfere with a impermanent I booked oregon a question I asked,” Wallace told his viewers Sunday. “And they kept that promise.”

Wallace’s father, Mike Wallace, was 1 of the archetypal correspondents for “60 Minutes” connected CBS. He died successful 2012.