Fox News on Thursday announced that Shannon Bream will host the network’s flagship Sunday political talk show, permanently filling a vacancy left by long-time anchor Chris Wallace’s departure for CNN last year. The news came at the same time CNN finally announced a Sunday evening time slot for Wallace’s new show on the cable channel.
Bream will serve as Fox News Sunday’s first woman moderator since its launch in 1996, and only its third ever. She will debut in the full-time role starting Sept. 11, according to an internal memo obtained by The Daily Beast.
“It has been an honor to cover major news throughout Washington over the last 15 years at Fox News,” Bream said in the memo, as first reported by Variety. “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to host a Sunday show and look forward to this new role.”
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“Shannon is an outstanding journalist, reporter and anchor who has cultivated a strong and enduring relationship with the Fox News Media audience,” Suzanne Scott, the network’s CEO, said in the announcement.
The show’s anchor chair has been filled by a rotation of hosts since Wallace left, including Bream along with fellow hosts Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, and Harris Faulkner. Bream is Fox’s chief legal correspondent and currently hosts the network’s nightly midnight broadcast, Fox News @ Night, which will feature a rotation of hosts going forward.
"Shannon is very well-liked and respected here in DC so I think people here will be satisfied with the pick,” a Fox News staffer told The Daily Beast. “Naturally, everyone will want to compare her to Chris Wallace and she's not that—and I think the people here who aren’t true believers recognize that as well.”
On the same day, CNN’s new boss Chris Licht announced during an internal town hall that Wallace’s upcoming show, titled Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, will air on Sunday nights at 7 p.m. Multiple sources within CNN confirmed the announcement to The Daily Beast.
Wallace’s program was originally meant to spearhead the network’s now-defunct CNN+ streaming service and was announced in May to air on HBO Max and CNN, but CNN had not disclosed a time.
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