Chris Cuomo is heading back to cable news this fall, hosting a primetime show for NewsNation in his first TV job since being fired by CNN last December.
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Chris Cuomo will join Nexstar’s NewsNation this fall, landing at the fledgling news outlet after his dismissal from CNN late last year.
The announcement came at the end of an hourlong interview with Dan Abrams on NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live. The wide-ranging interview, his first since exiting CNN, covered his firing after the disclosure of the extent to which he advised his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as he faced sexual harassment allegations.
"I want to find a way to help people. I am going to come to NewsNation and I want to build something special here," Cuomo, 51, said during the 9 p.m. broadcast. "Work with Dan, work with the team here — they've got great people who are really hungry to make a difference in ways that I think matter."
Cuomo, 51, who long hosted the top-rated prime-time show on CNN, was fired in December for allegedly violating network standards by advising his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as he navigated sexual harassment allegations. In March, Cuomo filed a demand for arbitration against CNN, seeking $125 million in damages for alleged unlawful termination.
While Cuomo declined to discuss the litigation against CNN Tuesday night — his first national interview since being fired — he defended the essence of his high-profile case against his former employer.
“There are a lot of facts that I believe are going to come out,” Cuomo said. “I never lied and there were no secrets.”
NewsNation reaches a fraction of the audience of major cable networks — even of the viewership of the current 9 PM ET hour on CNN that has been filled with rotating hosts since Cuomo’s departure. According to Nielsen, NewsNation has averaged 50,000 viewers in primetime so far this year, compared to 2.4 million for Fox News, 1.2 million for MSNBC and 762,000 for CNN.
“Chris joins our growing team of seasoned, award-winning journalists—and will further our efforts to continue to ensure fairness and transparency in our news reporting and talk shows,” said Sean Compton, Nexstar Media Inc.’s president of networks, in a statement.
The Cuomo investigation at CNN also ultimately led to the Feb. 2 resignation of Jeff Zucker, CNN president and WarnerMedia News and Sports chairman, after it was revealed that Zucker had failed to disclose his consensual romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, who was CNN’s evp, cmo and lead spokesperson. Gollust herself resigned two weeks later.