Chris Wallace Says Life at Fox News Became ‘Unsustainable’

I didn't feel comfortable with the programming at Fox.

Chris Wallace said those words while eating a salad at his new desk at CNN, the network he joined in January after nearly two decades at Fox News.

It was a statement that was a long time coming for those on the left who admired him and those on the right who doubted him.

Mr. Wallace was one of the channel's fiercest defenders, disappointing liberals who hoped he would denounce colleagues like Tucker Carlson.

Mr. Wallace said that he was done in December. He jumped to CNN after declining to host Fox News Sunday. The new CNN+ streaming service will be home to his daily interview show.

Why did Mr. Wallace change the channel?

When people start to question the truth, Mr. Wallace said in his first extensive interview about his decision to leave. Was January 6 an insurrection?

He said he spent a lot of the year looking to see if there was a better place for him to do his job.

The anchor was eager to describe what attracted him to his new job: excitement about CNN+, the more freewheeling format of streaming TV. In the first few episodes, he talks about space travel with William Shatner, asks Bob Iger about meeting the pope, and sings a duet with Judy Collins.

In the months after Donald J. Trump's defeat in 2020, Mr. Wallace felt a shift at Fox News.

He confirmed reports that he was so alarmed by the documentary that it was a false flag.

Mr. Wallace said that before, he could do his job and feel good about his involvement at Fox.

Some viewers may wonder why he did not leave earlier.

He said that some people might have drawn the line earlier or at a different point. I can understand where someone would say that you were a slow learner.

Fox News didn't comment.

Mr. Wallace said that his new show is on CNN+. The work of famous interviewers like Larry King and Charlie Rose inspired Mondays through Thursdays. Mike Wallace hosted an interview program in the late 1950s with guests such as Henry Kissinger and Jean Seberg.

The set of the show is sparse, just Mr. Wallace and a guest sitting on either side of a table. Mr. Wallace said he wanted to have an intimate, thoughtful conversation where we forget we're on camera.

Mr. Wallace is featured in marketing materials for CNN+ along with younger hosts like the chef Alison Roman. Some of his early guests are older than Ms. Collins and Mr. Shatner.

The service, which costs $6 a month, launches on Tuesday, years after the arrival of streaming competitors like Fox Nation and the CBS News Streaming Network. CNN executives think it's a major effort to gain a foothold with viewers who are abandoning cable for online alternatives.

CNN is undergoingwrenching change and the stakes are high. WarnerMedia is expected to be acquired by Discovery in the next few weeks. Jeff Zucker resigned as CNN's leader in February over an undisclosed relationship with a colleague.

Mr. Wallace allowed that Mr. Zucker, the man who hired him, was forced out in a corporate scandal just weeks after he joined up.

He said that Mr. Zucker's exit was not ideal.

Mr. Wallace is best known for his political expertise, which includes being an equal-opportunity griller of Democrats and Republicans, as well as being NBC's chief White House correspondent. He chimed in with a few lyrics from her 1975 hit, "Send In the Clowns."

Mr. Wallace said that he wanted to get out of politics.

He wouldn't discuss recent opinions expressed by Mr. Carlson and other Fox News commentators.

Mr. Wallace said that he left Fox because he wanted to put all of that behind him.