Bill Hemmer

He started in sports production at WLWT-TV in the mid-1980s where he realized his passion for live television. During his senior year at Miami University, Hemmer was offered a position at WLWT-TV as a sports producer. Soon after, he went to the CBS affiliate WCPO-TV as a sports anchor.[7][8]

At age 26, Hemmer took a nearly year-long hiatus from WCPO-TV to backpack around the world.[9]

Throughout the journey, Hemmer wrote dispatches and submitted tapes and photos for both The Cincinnati Post, a now defunct local newspaper, and CBS's local affiliate that were assembled into several pieces collectively known as "Bill's Excellent Adventure."[2]

The program won him two regional Emmys, Best Entertainment Program and Best Host.[10]

Hemmer worked at CNN from 1995 to 2005, hosting a number of programs, including American Morning (originally with Paula Zahn, and later with Soledad O'Brien), CNN Tonight, CNN Early Edition, CNN Morning News, and CNN Live Today with co-anchor Daryn Kagan.[11]

In May 2001, Hemmer played an instrumental role in the network's coverage of the Timothy McVeigh execution, reporting from Terre Haute, Indiana, where McVeigh was put to death for his part in the Oklahoma City bombing.[12]

He reported from World Trade Center site in New York City for a month in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and from Khandahar, Afghanistan during the buildup of American forces in the early days of The War on Terror.[10]

In the summer of 2002, Hemmer reported live from Somerset, Pennsylvania, on the mining accident that trapped nine workers for 77 hours when a wall separating their tunnel from an abandoned, flooded mine gave way, sending millions of gallons of water into their work area.[12]

In 2003, Hemmer traveled to Kuwait to report on escalating tensions in Iraq and remained on-site to cover Operation Iraqi Freedom when the war began.[13]

He also spent more than a month covering the crisis in Kosovo, where he reported on the aerial bombing missions from Aviano Air Base in Italy, the refugee crisis from Skopje, Macedonia, and on the latest NATO developments from Brussels.[12]

Hemmer joined Fox News in August 2005.[14] In 2020, he hosted a weekday afternoon newscast Bill Hemmer Reports and served as Chief Anchor for breaking news and other live major events.

Prior to that, he was the founding morning co-anchor of America's Newsroom.[15] He participated in the network's coverage of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.[16] During the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, Hemmer reported from the front-lines in the town of Metula in Northern Israel.

Throughout the 2008, 2012 and 2016 election seasons, Hemmer covered the political party conventions from their respective cities—including the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary.[17] His “BillBoard”[18] on Election Nights is designed to bring data to viewers, capturing the vote in real time from precincts across the country. Hemmer was the network's lead reporter and anchor from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, as well as the site of the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013.[19][20] In July 2018, Hemmer traveled to Helsinki, Finland to report on President Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.[21] In 2019, Hemmer covered February's nuclear summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un from Hanoi, Vietnam, concluding that assignment at the DMZ in South Korea.[22] He also had the first interview with then-Attorney General William Barr when he traveled to El Salvador after the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on the Russia Investigation in May.[23]

In 2021, Fox News announced a new weekday programming lineup, moving Hemmer back to America's Newsroom with co-anchor Dana Perino.