Inside Shannon Bream’s career after ex-lawyer permanently replaces Chris Wallace as first woman to host FOX News Sunday

JOURNALIST Shannon Bream is set to make history in weeks as she will become the first woman to host FOX News Sunday.

The ex-lawyer turned reporter, 51, has been revealed as Chris Wallace’s permanent replacement after he left the network in 2021.

Shannon Bream has been revealed as Chris Wallace’s permanent replacement on FOX News SundayCredit: Fox News

Bream has been with the network since 2007Credit: Rex
FOX journalists Bret Baier, Mike Emanuel, Dana Perino, and Gillian Turner have been among the presenters who presented the show on a rotating basis following Wallace’s departure.

Bream was confirmed as the permanent host of the show on August 11.

FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said Bream is an “outstanding journalist, reporter, and anchor.”

Scott added that Bream has “cultivated a strong and enduring relationship” with viewers.

The reporter’s appointment means she will become the first woman to anchor FOX News Sunday in its 26-year history.

She said: “It has been an honor to cover major news throughout Washington over the last 15 years at FOX News.

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to host a Sunday show and look forward to this new role.”

Bream, of Tallahassee, Florida, graduated from the Florida State University College of Law in 1996 before becoming a lawyer specializing in race discrimination and harassment.

She told Northern Virginia in June: “I ended up going to law school because I really am interested in politics and law and how our country functions. So it was a good foundation.

“But I didn’t actually love practicing law … I just continued to feel that pull toward news.”

But, she switched careers five years later as she decided to move into journalism.

Bream worked as the evening and late-night news reporter for the CBS affiliate channel WBTV.

She presented alongside anchor John Carter.

In an interview with the Charlotte Observer in 2012, Carter recalled the moment when a production camera appeared to malfunction as Bream was reading a story.

He told the outlet: “She’s reading this serious story and the camera pointed at her starts going up and down and sideways, and then spinning around while the video part of the story was running.

“She just lost it laughing and she fell out of the chair.

“It was spinning around like nobody’s business, like it was possessed.

“She was on the floor, and I had to finish reading the story, then we went to commercial.”

‘SMART AND HARDWORKING’

Carter said Bream was a smart and hardworking reporter.

Bream joined FOX in 2007 following a stint at WRC-TV in Washington DC where she was a weekend anchor.

She covered and reported on Supreme Court proceedings before becoming the network’s Chief Legal Correspondent.

Bream has covered some of the major stories that have left America reeling in recent years.

She reported on the death of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away in September 2020 at the age of 87.

She interviewed Jill Biden and the pair discussed Joe Biden’s run for the White House.

Bream has reported on former President Trump’s impeachment trial and covered Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

But, she described Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court in 2018 as “nothing else” that she had previously reported on.

She said: “It was just unlike anything else I’ve ever done as the memories and the impact of watching the American constitutional system in the process.”

And, she reported on the dramatic Supreme Court ruling that saw Roe v Wade overturned.

Bream is also an author, having featured on the New York Times best-selling list on two separate occasions.

Her first book The Women of the Bible Speak: The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today was on the list for 15 weeks.

Bream spent five of those weeks at number one.

She released her second book titled Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak in March 2022.

NEW ROLE

Bream is set to start her role on September 11.

It means that there will be a series of guest presenters who will anchor Bream’s current show FOX News @ Night.

Colleagues and journalists across the media industry have congratulated Bream on becoming the new host of FOX News Sunday.

Brit Hume, a senior political analyst, said: “Congratulations to Shannon Bream on being named the new anchor of Fox News Sunday.

“She is a superb journalist and broadcaster and a wonderful human being.”

Baier, who is the anchor of Special Report, said Bream will be “fantastic” in her new role.

‘AN INCREDIBLE ANCHOR’

Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst described Bream as an “incredible anchor and person” in a gushing post.

And, former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who is the co-host of Outnumbered, said she will be “tuning in” to FOX News Sunday when Bream is on the air.

Bream becomes the permanent face of the show – months after Chris Wallace left the network.

Wallace hosted the program for 18 years but said in December 2021 that it was time to take a step back from politics.

The veteran journalist said he wanted “to try something new, to go beyond politics to all the things I’m interested in.”

At the end of his last show, he said: “After 18 years – this is my final Fox News Sunday. It is the last time – and I say this with real sadness – we will meet like this.

“Eighteen years ago, the bosses here at Fox promised me they would never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked and they kept that promise.

“I have been free to report to the best of my ability, to cover the stories I think are important, to hold our country’s leaders to account. It’s been a great ride.”