Chris Cuomo has been off the air as a nightly news presence since December 2021, but that’s all about to change. During an appearance on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” Tuesday night, Cuomo revealed he would be joining the network as a primetime anchor in the fall.
The former pundit spoke publicly for the first time since CNN fired him for advising his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, during the latter’s sexual harassment scandal.
NewsNation is a new player in the cable news business and to date draws a fraction of the ratings its more established competitors enjoy. Fox News continues to dominate with an average of 2.4 million primetime viewers, followed by 1.2 million for MSNBC and 762k for CNN, per Deadline.
At his own personal height during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuomo himself was averaging 2 million viewers for CNN. So far, NewsNation is averaging about 60,000 viewers in primetime, per the Los Angeles Times.
The fledgling news source owned by Nexstar Media Group launched in September 2020 with an emphasis on providing objective, non-partisan, non-biased news coverage. Conservative and liberal biases have long been a criticism of the more established news networks.
While CNN has said they were aware that Cuomo was consulting with his brother, they said they were unaware of the extent of his involvement as the then-governor denied all allegations of sexual misconduct brought against him.
Cuomo has filed suit against the network for “wrongful termination,” and continues to insist that there were no secrets and they knew exactly how he was advising his brother. Insisting “it was known” that he was helping his brother, Cuomo told Abrams, “I never lied and there were no secrets.”
The anchor was also accused of using his resources and connections in the journalism industry to gather information about and influence coverage of his brother’s scandal. Cuomo insists that he never did any of those things, as reported by Mediaite.
Calling it a “distinction with a difference,” Cuomo admitted he did make calls to the media, but insisted that when he said he “never made calls to the press about my brother’s situation,” what he meant was that he never made calls to “influence the story.”
Finally, he faced an allegation of sexual misconduct himself, which reportedly factored into CNN’s decision to terminate him. Cuomo denied the accusation.
Cuomo had previously worked as a straight news anchor and correspondent with ABC News. As a pundit, his more liberal leanings became evident, particularly in his popular “hand-off” segments with CNN pundit Don Lemon. Now, it looks as if he’ll be returning to his non-biased reporting roots — or at least he should, per the edict of the network.
NewsNation took over the channel position previously held by WGN America. Currently running about 11 hours of live news coverage, the network is hoping to expand to a more competitive 24 hours of programming by mid-2023.
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