News

Veteran news anchor Chris Wallace quits CNN for streaming world

Veteran CNN news anchor Chris Wallace has announced he is leaving the network to venture into the streaming world.

Wallace, 77, told the Daily Beast Monday that he decided to forfeit his seven-figure contract, just about a week after he hosted the station’s election night coverage.

The career broadcast journalist described his decision as ‘quite liberating.’ His time at the network will be over at the end of the year.

‘This is the first time in 55 years I’ve been between jobs. I am actually excited and liberated by that,’ Wallace told the outlet.

Although Wallace described the streaming and podcasting space as ‘where the action seems to be,’ he is not exactly sure where that will take him.

‘Not knowing is part of the challenge. I‘m waiting to see what comes over the transom. It might be something that I haven’t thought of at all,’ he said.

Despite being unsure of what’s ahead of him, Wallace said: ‘I am clearly not going to become a hard-right or hard-left advocate. It’s just absent from my DNA.’

Wallace revealed he plans to take on his new adventure by adding touches of his own brand and style.

‘I’ve interviewed presidents, princes, kings and one saint, Mother Teresa,’ he said.

Another component to his decision was his family, according to Wallace, who said he and his wife Lorraine discussed his future in Spring 2024.

The couple of 26 years agreed that Wallace would ‘stick around’ for the 2024 election before leaving the station.

‘My family just want me to be happy and they want me to keep working. They do not want to have to worry about entertaining me,’ Wallace said.

He has six children and nine grandchildren. Wallace shares four children with his first wife Elizabeth Farrel, while his current wife has two children with her former husband Dick Smothers.

Prior to his time at CNN, Wallace was with Fox News Sunday for 18 years up until  2021.

He originally joined the station to be one of the faces on CNN+, a failed streaming network that was nixed by former CEO Chris Licht just a month after launching in March 2022.

The journalist currently anchors The Chris Wallace Show on Saturday mornings on the station, and Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, which streams on Max.

Wallace made it clear that his decision has nothing to do with his experience at CNN, saying: ‘I have nothing but positive things to say.

‘CNN has been very good to me,’ he added.

Mark Thompson, the current CEO and Chairman of CNN said Wallace is ‘one of the most respected political journalists in the news business with a unique track record across radio, print, broadcast television, cable television and streaming.

‘We want to thank him for the dedication and wisdom he’s brought to all his work at CNN and to wish him the very best for the future.’

Wallace started at a local TV station in Chicago in 1973, before moving on to other major networks including Meet the Press, The Today Show, and ABC’s PrimeTime Live.

Over the years, he has gone on to win major awards for his hard work in the industry, including three Emmys.

He is currently working on a new edition of his ‘Countdown’ book series, where he previously detailed the 1960 presidential election, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Throughout his career, Wallace has interviewed an array of high-profile political figures, including president- elect Donald Trump, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Vladimir Putin, and Barack Obama, among others.

He followed in his late father’s footsteps, Mike Wallace, a renowned 60 Minutes reporter who worked into his 80s.

His parents divorced when he was just one-years-old, and went on to grow up with his mother Norma Kaphan and his step-father Bill Leonard, the former president of CBS News.

Wallace knows for sure that although his time at CNN is coming to a close, he is not done with his career just yet.

‘I know I want to do something because Wallace’s keep working,’ he said.

CNN’s ratings have been lagging far behind rival FOX and MSNBC, part of what’s rumored to be a winter of layoffs that many at the network fear will be a ‘bloodbath,’ with one source saying ‘the place needs to be turned upside down.’

Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer – making $7 million and $3 million, respectively – signed new deals at the same price, with an agent joking that ‘flat is the new up.’

News of his departure comes as many networks face a hardship amidst anchors salaries being cut, or leaving to branch off on their own media journey.

In late September, Today Show legend Hoda Kotb announced she will be leaving the show early next year after nearly seven years at the helm.

Hoda, who has been part of NBC News for 26 years, was immediately moved to tears as she explained to her fellow co-hosts turning 60 had been a ‘monumental moment’ that made her decide it was time to ‘try something new’.

The TV icon – who reportedly earns around $8 million a year – also wrote a letter explaining her ‘painful’ decision to her colleagues, explaining further that marking her 60th birthday sparked a seismic ‘shift’ in her life.

Related Posts

Rachel Reeves to unveil ‘big bang’ on British economy with biggest pension reform in decades which could unlock up to £80 billion worth of investment

Rachel Reeves will today unveil a major pensions shake-up designed to unlock up to £80 billion of investment in British infrastructure and business. In her Mansion House speech tonight, the Chancellor will confirm she is pressing ahead with plans to merge pension schemes to create new ‘megafunds’ capable of investing in major infrastructure projects and emerging industries. Ms Reeves will argue that the move could unlock a wave of private sector investment that will boost her anaemic growth forecasts and ultimately provide better returns for pensioners.

Ed Miliband hopes to establish ‘common ground’ with Donald Trump on climate change – after US president-elect repeatedly referred to the issue as a ‘hoax

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has spoke of his hope to establish ‘common ground’ with Donald Trump on the climate issue. The US president-elect has repeatedly referred to climate change as a ‘hoax’ and has also vowed to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, which commits it to cutting greenhouse emissions as part of the effort to curb global warming. Speaking about the move towards clean energy, Mr Miliband said: ‘What I think is so striking about what’s happening – whether you talk to businesses or talk to other countries – people are getting on with the transition.

Massive change coming to cigarettes in Australia – as government tries to stamp out smoking for good

A health warning will be printed on every cigarette sold in Australia under strict new laws aimed at stamping out smoking. Under the tobacco regulations, warning messages including ‘poison in every puff’, ‘damages your lungs’, ’causes 16 cancers’, ‘shortens your life’ and ‘toxic addiction’ must be printed on every cigarette by April 2025. ‘We will be one of the first countries in the world to include this new public health measure, again seeking to educate but also dissuade smokers from using this deadly product,’ said health minister Mark Butler when he announced the legislation last year.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: Democratic Elites destroyed our party… its renewal begins with their repentance

Until the day he died in 1995, if you asked my father who he voted for in any presidential election he said ‘Roosevelt.’ It was gospel in our house that Democrats were the party of the people and Republicans were the economic royalists. That was then, and this is now. The majority of Americans don’t necessarily see it that way anymore.

Passenger plane sprayed with gunfire while landing & 2nd jet shot on take-off in ‘world’s most dangerous city’ in Haiti

HAITI’S international airport was forced to shut down after gangs opened fire at a passenger plane. The Spirit Airlines flight from Florida was struck by bullets as it went to touch down Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport. A flight attendant was injured as gangs sprayed the plane – which had come from Fort Lauderdale – with gunfire on Monday.

Kamala Harris gave $500,000 to MSNBC anchor’s nonprofit before network’s fawning interview

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign delivered $500,000 in donations to Al Sharpton’s non-profit organization, just prior to a glowing interview with the candidate on MSNBC. Harris’s campaign gave two payments of $250,000 to National Action Network on September 5 and October 1, according to campaign finance records first reported by the Washington Free Beacon and confirmed by DailyMail.com. Sharpton publicly backed Harris after Biden endorsed her to succeed him in his reelection campaign. After Sharpton’s organization received donations from Harris, he got a coveted sit-down interview with her just two weeks before the election

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *