Shannon Bream will this weekend kick off a new era on “Fox News Sunday,” the jewel of the news side at Fox News Channel, which often gets more attention for its opinion programming. She will be the programs’ first permanent female host and will be the first permanent replacement for Chris Wallace, who burnished his reputation for prosecutorial questioning of newsmakers and politicians over a tenure that lasted just under two decades. Wallace raised eyebrows in late 2021, when he announced on air he was leaving the show. He later disclosed he had jumped to CNN, where he is slated to host a new program for both HBO Max and CNN’s Sunday schedule.
“We will have our own style,” says Bream, though the mission of the show remains the same. “People are very frustrated with gridlock [in Washington] and people talking past each other. What we want to do is have deep, meaningful conversations where people are going to be pressed to express their positions.” During her time as one of several rotating hosts on “Fox News Sunday,” she has pressed Republicans such as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Utah Senator Mike Lee and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt on topics including abortion rights and gun control...
“There are very few places where there is a discernible, recognizable mission to prompt people in influential leadership positions, or positions of power to explain what they are doing, to defend their record and to be held accountable to a wider public,” says Frank Sesno, a former CNN executive who is director of strategic initiatives at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.
