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Chris Wallace’s now-defunct CNN+ show is reportedly headed to HBO Max.
After investing $300 million in the failed streaming service, CNN+ shut down within 3 weeks of its launch date.
“Chris Wallace will get a second chance for his interview show after CNN+ was pulled off the air, with the series reportedly moving to HBO Max. Wallace’s show Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace will move to the HBO streaming service, where new owners Warner Bros. Discovery are focusing their cord-cutting investments,” the Daily Mail reported.
“Meanwhile, the fate of other talent recruited for CNN+ remains up in the air, including food-media star Roman, former NPR host Audie Cornish, ex-NBC News host Kasie Hunt, and sports commentators Jemele Hill and Rex Chapman. Monday marked the first official workday for new CNN boss Chris Licht, who suggested he will move the network away from opinion-led shows that have dominated over the last few years,” the report added.
Wallace, who abruptly left Fox News to join CNN’s new streaming service before it was doomed after just a few weeks, recently spoke about everything that has happened.
“I am going to be fine,” Wallace said during a panel discussion hosted by the Common Ground Committee. “I’m in good shape, whether it’s at CNN or someplace else.”
His show, “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” aired four times a week since CNN Plus’s launch on March 29.
But Wallace said he was more concerned for the staff that helped him create it.
“I think you’re seeing a lot of the anchors at CNN Plus doing everything they can do to protect the people that were working on their team and to make sure they either get a safe landing at CNN or someplace else,” he said.
During a recent interview, Wallace spoke about leaving Fox News to join CNN+, which has been shut down after abysmal subscriber growth — or lack thereof.
“I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” he said of his decision to leave Fox News. “But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”
Wallace then went after Fox News host Tucker Carlson, saying he was “so alarmed by Mr. Carlson’s documentary ‘Patriot Purge’ — which falsely suggested the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a ‘false flag’ operation intended to demonize conservatives — that he complained directly to Fox News management.”
“Before, I found it was an environment in which I could do my job and feel good about my involvement at Fox,” he said. “And since November of 2020, that just became unsustainable, increasingly unsustainable as time went on.”
CNN+ is facing extreme cuts and reviews by incoming corporate parent Warner Bros. Discovery after it was a total disaster.
The new owners are reportedly not happy with the Chris Wallace-led streaming service, suspended all external marketing spending for CNN+, and laid off CNN’s longtime chief financial officer.
The new owners at Discovery have replaced CNN CFO Brad Ferrer with Neil Chugani, Discovery’s current CFO for streaming and international.
Sources say corporate parent Warner Bros. Discovery executives are planning to dramatically shift the network’s primetime shows back to hard news and away from partisan politics.
The new bosses are aiming to spend money in order to get the cable news side back to straight news reporting.
They are essentially abandoning the streaming service, which leaves Wallace holding the bag and potentially without a show to host.
CNN executives initially wanted to have 2 million subscribers for the streaming service in the first year, but only managed to get around 150,000 subscribers.
