Chris Wallace, the former Fox News anchor who joined CNN Plus as one of the doomed streaming service’s marquee hires, will not be getting his own show on the main network, according to Axios.
SO WHAT
Anyone betting on the mainstream media might want to think again.
WHAT HAPPENED
Speaking at a virtual event for the Common Ground Committee on Sunday night, Wallace said he wasn’t sure what he will do for CNN amid the shuttering of CNN Plus less than a month after its launch.
- “I’m in good shape, whether it’s CNN or someplace else. Frankly, what I’m mostly concerned about right now, and very, is my team and hundreds of other people … that had jobs at CNN Plus,” said Wallace, who is being paid $5 million a year.
- Wallace, a former Fox News anchor and son of iconic journalist Mike Wallace, had an interview show on CNN’s failed streaming service.
- According to Axios media reporter Sara Fischer, Wallace will make TV appearances across CNN programming but is unlikely to get a daily show of his own.
THE PILE ON
Since CNN Plus’ failed rollout, Wallace has become the butt of jokes by his former colleagues at Fox News.
- “[Black Lives Matter] has done to black people what Chris Wallace did to CNN Plus. He enticed them with a promise and then ditched them on the side of the road,” Fox News host Greg Gutfeld said Thursday on “The Five.”
- At another point, Gutfeld joked: “A lot of these solutions that are coming from the left are unreliable, there are solar panels or windmills. Look at CNN Plus, how much money they invested in wind power by hiring Chris Wallace.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson got in on the fun later the same day.
- “Nobody signed up to watch Mike Wallace’s son,” read a chyron aired during a “Tucker Carlson Tonight” segment on the demise of CNN Plus.
- “I’m sure [Wallace] is very good at his job. I don’t watch him much. I didn’t watch him much when he was on our network,” Fox News panelist Charlie Gasparino told Carlson during the segment.
- “I’m with you, man,” Carlson said.
THE FUTURE OF MEDIA
Amid CNN Plus’ struggles, streaming video services that offer alternatives to mainstream news, such as Fox Nation, have thrived.
- Similarly, Substack, an anti-censorship platform for independent journalists, has experienced massive growth in recent years.
- One explanation for why news consumers are turning away from traditional media? Trust in the mainstream press has fallen to record-lows.