Chris Cuomo revealed on a new episode of the “Open Book With Anthony Scaramucci” podcast that he “was going to kill everybody including [himself]” after CNN fired him in 2021. Cuomo and CNN parted ways after the anchor got caught up in the sexual-harassment scandal that engulfed his brother, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. CNN found that Chris Cuomo aided his brother’s team of officials on the matter, and he was ousted as a result. Cuomo has long maintained that CNN knew of the counsel he was offering his brother.
“I had to accept [my firing] because I was going to kill everybody including myself,” Cuomo told Scaramucci. “Things can consume you. Italians are so passionate. There is damage that is relatable, there is damage that is un-relatable to people that I have to deal with, that I am working on.”
Cuomo has since launched a new show on NewsNation, but his ratings pale in comparison to his CNN run. The New York Postreported that Cuomo’s NewsNation show earned just 147,000 viewers during its October 2022 debut. The anchor told Scaramucci that he knows he’s not going to be number one in the ratings.
“I’ll never be that again. That was taken from me, I believe wrongly,” Cuomo said. “I’ll litigate that. I’m not going to bitch about it in the press…I’m trying to remember what I’ve been through every day, and not forgetting and falling back into what works and what will rate more and what will get me higher on the media list and what will get more people talking about me.”
In a lawsuit filed last March, Cuomo alleged that his career has suffered damages in excess of $125 million and suggested CNN had allowed several of his one-time colleagues to violate standards and practices in a bid to keep viewership — just as it did with him. The anchor also saidhis firing by CNN late last yearcost him nearly $15 million in salary that he would have earned if he had served out his last contract.
Cuomo previously opened up about his CNN firing on an episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” saying last summer, “I feel like I lost a sense of purpose for a while because of how things ended…It’s true, when you struggle you learn who your friends are. I’ve always known who my friends are, I’ve had them for a very long time.”
VIP+ Survey: There’s a Clear MVP of Cable News Anchors
