ABC’s Jonathan Karl Had Talks With Fox News to Replace Chris Wallace

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl was in talks with Fox News about potentially replacing Chris Wallace at the network, The Daily Beast reported.

Wallace shocked the news business when he announced his departure from Fox News in December on air.

In its Source Material newsletter, the Beast said that “Karl, who has long yearned to host a Sunday show, had talks with Fox News execs about replacing Wallace on Fox News Sunday but ultimately passed.”

According to a Fox News spokesperson, “We had very informal conversations with Jonathan Karl as we routinely have with many talent across all media—offers are never extended in these discussions, therefore nothing was declined.”

The network has yet to decide on Wallace’s replacement on Fox News Sunday.

In a recent interview, Wallace, who will host Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? on the streaming service CNN+, said working at Fox News had become “unsustainable.”

Wallace departed after his contract expired. He said he was concerned about the direction of Fox News’ opinion programming after the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

“I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” he told The New York Times, “but when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was January 6 an insurrection? I found that unsustainable. I spent a lot of 2021 looking to see if there was a different place for me to do my job.”

Wallace added, “Before, I found it was an environment in which I could do my job and feel good about my involvement at Fox.”