Veteran anchor Shannon Bream is the new moderator of “Fox News Sunday,” becoming the successor to Chris Wallace on the Washington roundtable program.
Bream’s appointment was announced Thursday after Fox News used a rotation of fill-ins following Wallace’s departure in December.
Wallace was moderator for 19 years before heading to CNN for its ill-fated streaming service. Wallace remains with CNN, which will air his interview program on weekends later this year.
Bream delivered the strongest ratings among those who filled in as moderator of “Fox News Sunday” over the last seven months, which factored into the decision to give her the job permanently. Her appearances lifted the program’s audience levels by 30 percent in January, according to Nielsen data.
A former corporate attorney, Bream has been with Fox News since 2007, serving as the network’s chief legal correspondent covering the Supreme Court. She also anchors “Fox News @ Night,” a Washington-based nightly newscast.
Bream will take over “Fox News Sunday” on Sept. 12. She remains on the legal beat, but will be replaced at “Fox News @ Night.”
Bream’s stature at Fox News has risen over the last few years thanks to her success as an author. Her two most recent titles, “The Women of the Bible Speak” and “The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak: Lessons on Faith From Nine Biblical Families,” both hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
“Fox News Sunday” is the only program that appears on both Fox News and the Fox broadcast network. The interview format is similar to the other Sunday shows such as “Meet the Press” on NBC and “Face the Nation” on CBS, which traditionally set the agenda for Beltway news at the start of the week.
“Fox News Sunday” tends to get attention for surprising Republican guests with tough questioning, as they are used to not getting much pushback from the like-minded opinion hosts on the conservative cable channel. The program also books a wider range of Democratic politicians.
Like her predecessor Wallace, Bream focuses on straight news on the channel and steers clear of political opinion, even when she appears on its more freewheeling Fox News panel shows such as “Outnumbered” and “Gutfeld!”
“Fox News @ Night,” which airs at midnight on the East Coast, is the most watched cable news program in the Los Angeles market at 9 p.m. PT. Substitute anchors will fill Bream’s chair until a permanent replacement is named.
