CNN anchor Chris Wallace is getting ready to leave the cable network.
Wallace, who hosts an eponymous show on weekend mornings and the CNN Max interview series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, will depart when his three-year contract ends. The 77-year-old, whose TV career spans half a century and multiple news networks, says he’ll look to independent platforms like streaming or podcasting for his next stop, as that’s “where the action seems to be,” he told The Daily Beast (which broke the news of his departure).
“Chris 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,” CNN CEO and chairman Mark Thompson said in a statement. “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 future.”
Wallace told The Daily Beast that he bears no ill will toward CNN: “I have nothing but positive things to say. CNN has been very good to me,” he said. He had discussed leaving when his contract ends with his wife, Lorraine, for several months before coming to the decision.
Wallace was to be one of the faces of CNN’s would-be streaming platform, CNN+, when he joined the network after 18 years at Fox News. CNN+, however, was scrapped after less than a month of existence, and Wallage segued into his current duties — including the show on CNN’s hub at streaming service Max.
Wallace, the son of long-time CBS newsman and 60 Minutes mainstay Mike Wallace, began his TV career at NBC News in the mid-1970s, working as a White House correspondent, weekend Nightly News anchor and Meet the Press moderator. He moved to ABC in 1989 and was a senior correspondent for Primetime Live and sometime Nightline host before joining Fox News in 2003.
Wallace told The Daily Beast that he’s embracing the uncertainty of what might come next for him. “Not knowing is part of the challenge,” he said. “I‘m waiting to see what comes over the transom. It might be something that I haven’t thought of at all.”