5 Questions for…Bill Hemmer on 20 Years at Fox News

Bill Hemmer, Fox News’ weekday anchor, celebrated his 20th year at the network on Friday. His colleagues toasted the America’s Newsroom co-anchor during the waning moments of his morning show, led by his co-anchor Dana Perino. 

Amidst the adulation, Hemmer also showered praise for his colleagues, telling Perino, “It’s very cool to be a part of everything here. And someone said you can’t just say, ‘Hey, you love your colleagues.’ But I love my colleagues, and they make it worthwhile.”

Hemmer, who left CNN to join Fox News, started his tenure at the network with his first major story covering Hurricane Katrina live from New Orleans.

Since then, he’s been part of Fox News’ coverage of major national and international events, reporting from the North Pole to Vietnam to manning the “Bill-Board” on election nights. 

He recently returned from reporting from Gaza, where he had an exclusive tour of a food distribution site in the city of Rafah and conducted an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

TVNewser got Hemmer to reflect on his 20 years at Fox News as part of our 5 Questions For… feature, where, among other things, he revealed he will be celebrating his anniversary while vacationing in Turkey as he looks to tour Istanbul and “find a beach to chill.”

TVNewser: Did you think you would spend 20 years at Fox News, let alone any media company?

Hemmer: Generally, I’m not prone to plan. Most of the time, I can’t see past the next week, or month, or assignment. It seems to be a string of rolling thunder headlines, one year into the next. I am forever grateful for my bosses at Fox—all of them. They allowed me to be a part of the biggest stories of the past two decades. It’s what I wanted to do. They made it happen.

What about working at Fox News made it possible to have a 20-year career?

My colleagues. They are terrific people, and they come to play. It’s our secret sauce. Few outside the building will understand it. Whether it’s working during a breaking news story or an important national event like a convention, debate, or election, it’s like a digital symphony. We are in sync. 

You recently came back from the Middle East, reporting from Gaza—what are your thoughts on the situation on the ground in Rafah?

Like the entire Middle East, it’s complicated. Rafah has been leveled. We saw it from the ground, which showed us part of the story. When we finished our reporting after the interview with the Prime Minister, our crew was driving back to Tel Aviv when I saw the first TikTok video of aerial destruction. It all fit at that point: Gaza is in for a very difficult future.

You are also known for manning the “Bill-Board” during election night. How do you keep up with the evolving technology they keep using during each election cycle?

We practice—a lot. The technology is evolving at a rapid pace. That’s both exciting and challenging. I have a saying at Fox about “trapdoors.” Don’t fall through one. To avoid that, you must run the scenarios, all of the potential scenarios. We find there can be hundreds on an Election Night, and we want to nail it with our technology. 

Please describe an offbeat experience you recently had while you were in the Middle East.

I’m a sucker for Middle Eastern food: shawarma, hummus, tahini, and falafel. All of it jammed into a warm pita bread pocket. Our team in Jerusalem is unmatched. Hanging out with [Trey Yingst], [Yonat Friling], and Yoav, learning from their perspectives as we straddled a picnic table on a warm August night, in the alley at an outdoor restaurant, sharing our thoughts about what we had seen earlier that day in Gaza and how it all fits into the matrix of the Middle East. That was a special and well-appreciated conversation and dinner.