Chris Cuomo’s Book Canceled, CNN Boss Says He ‘Deserved Termination’
By Kristin Myers on December 7, 2021 at 4:19 PM EST
Things are looking even worse for Chris Cuomo than they did yesterday!
On November 30, Cuomo was “suspended indefinitely” after helping his older brother, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, handle the sexual misconduct allegations he was facing.
On December 4, Cuomo was fired from CNN after an independent law firm revealed that Cuomo is facing multiple sexual misconduct allegations going back decades.
In 2005, he was accused of inappropriately grabbing a woman’s rear end at a work party. In 2020, producer Melanie Buck left “Cuomo Prime Time” after informing CNN President Jeff Zucker that she “felt threatened” by Cuomo.
“A former junior colleague at another network” has come forward with new accusations, although she has only agreed to be interviewed provided her statements and identity be kept confidential. Cuomo started working for ABC in 2006 before he joined CNN’s morning show in 2013.
Yesterday, Cuomo quit his SiriusXM show, but not before asking CNN to honor the rest of his $6 million dollar contract.
Zucker Calls Cuomo’s Firing ‘A Lesson We Have All Learned From’
In a staff meeting on Tuesday morning, Zucker reportedly told staffers that Cuomo “deserved termination” and called his firing “a lesson we have all learned from.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Zucker also addressed Cuomo’s demands to honor the remainder of his contract, saying that he was not going to receive any money.
Allegedly, Zucker said that he wished that Chris Cuomo had taken a leave of absence instead of reporting on his brother’s sexual misconduct scandal. CNN executives reportedly had asked Chris Cuomo to do so, but he had declined.
When asked if he regretted not suspending Cuomo earlier, Zucker reportedly said that “hindsight in all of this is very easy.”
“This was a very unique situation and so we did allow for some leeway for Chris that, you know, was unique to that situation for somebody in that role with a brother in that role during a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” he added. “So, I do think that we tried to make the right decisions at the right times.”
HarperCollins Publishers Cancel Cuomo’s 'Deep Denial'
A spokesperson for HarperCollins Publishers Custom House imprint confirmed that Cuomo’s book “Deep Denial” was not going to be released after the book mysteriously vanished from Amazon’s website.
Spokesperson Kelly Rudolph told the New York Post that “I can confirm that we don’t intend to publish the book.”
A synopsis of the book reads “From the anchor of CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, a provocative analysis of the harsh truths that the pandemic and Trump years have exposed about America - about our strength and our character - and a roadmap of the work needed to make our ideals match reality.”
According to the Amazon listing, the Audible.com release date was set to October 15, 2022.
There is no word on if Cuomo will try to locate a different publisher to release the book. There is also no word on who will take over Cuomo’s 9 PM weekly timeslot on CNN, although Zucker allegedly said that he will consider “diversity” in his replacement.
It is currently being filled by SiriusXM radio host Michael Smerconish.
