Fox News Selects Bill Hemmer As Permanent Replacement For Former Anchor Shepard Smith

Fox News announced on Monday that the network has selected Bill Hemmer as the permanent replacement for former longtime anchor Shepard Smith, who departed the network earlier this year on the heels of a spat with colleague Tucker Carlson, according to Variety.

Smith, who joined Fox News at its inception in 1996, anchored the popular daytime show Shepard Smith Reports and filled the role as the leader of the network’s breaking news division.

Hemmer, who has been the face of the network’s hard news division in the morning as a co-host of America’s Newsroom since 2005, will go solo with his new daytime show, Bill Hemmer Reports, in January 2020.

“As a journalist, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity. 2020 will undoubtedly be a year of great significance. Leading our breaking news division with a signature hour has enormous value to me, personally, and to our audience,” Hemmer said in a Monday statement. “We’ve got a fantastic team here and I am excited to get to work.”

America’s Newsroom, which Hemmer currently co-hosts with anchor Sandra Smith, will continue with a rotation of temporary co-hosts until the network selects a permanent replacement.

President and executive editor of Fox News, Jay Wallace, issued a statement about Hemmer’s new role, praising the veteran anchor’s news reporting ability, according to Fox News.

“Bill is an incredible newsman and his ability to cut to the heart of the story while humanizing major events has made him a standout talent in news. As we start gearing up for the 2020 election, we are thrilled to have him lead our news division through what will sure to be an eventful year,” Wallace wrote in a statement.

Hemmer has a long list of journalist milestones, including reporting from Helsinki, Finland, while President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as covering the U.S. summit with North Korea that took place earlier this year in Vietnam.

He has also been a central figure for the network’s highly-viewed election coverage, even earning praise from the network’s viewers for his easy-to-understand “Bill-board” election coverage breakdowns.

Smith, who surprised viewers at the end of one of his shows in October with the announcement that was leaving the network, drew sharp criticism from the president at the time, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.

Trump jabbed Smith on Twitter, asking if the longtime anchor was leaving because of bad ratings, a charge that was reportedly false, as Smith enjoyed some of the highest ratings in his time slot across all the cable news networks.