Chris Cuomo is poised to take an enormous pay minimize as he joins NewsNation, a fledgling cable TV channel with a tiny viewers, The Put up has discovered.
Cuomo, who was reportedly banking $6 million a yr for his ‘Cuomo Primetime’ present on CNN earlier than he was fired final yr, will probably earn only a fraction of that — insiders speculate the determine could possibly be round $1 million — as he begins his new gig at NewsNation this fall, sources informed The Put up.
“I don’t suppose he had numerous leverage,” mentioned one supply, referring to Cuomo’s contract. “He’s broken items.”
The plugged-in media supply speculated that Cuomo wasn’t getting any provides from any of the massive networks — and that the longer he wasn’t on TV, the extra irrelevant he was turning into.
NewsNation declined to touch upon Cuomo’s compensation.
Cuomo revealed his comeback bid on Dan Abrams’ NewsNation present Tuesday night time. The information marked the primary time Cuomo has appeared on TV since being canned from CNN final yr over his position in advising his older brother, Andrew Cuomo.
“I had determined that I can’t return to what folks see as ‘the massive recreation,’” Cuomo informed Abrams final night time. “I don’t suppose I could make a distinction there. I believe we’d like rebel media. I believe we’d like retailers that aren’t fringe and simply making an attempt to fill their pockets.”
However a second supply echoed that Cuomo gave the impression to be “out of choices” and that the anchor’s fall from grace has landed him on the younger community that’s maintaining prices low because it expands, sources mentioned.
Including insult to harm, Cuomo’s new job doesn’t embrace a clothes allowance or paid-for flights from his home in The Hamptons to the studio like his outdated job had, in line with sources near the state of affairs.
That’s even though Cuomo shall be getting a brand-new studio within the outdated WPIX headquarters on 220 East forty second St. A rep from NewsNation confirmed that the corporate been within the strategy of renovating a number of studios and that it has earmarked an area for Cuomo’s new present. A date for the autumn debut hasn’t but been introduced.
Whereas the rep wouldn’t reveal Cuomo’s time slot, she additionally confirmed that the anchor has already employed Alexandra “Dusty” Cohen, a former producer on “The View, as his govt producer.
The community, owned by Chicago-based Nexstar Media Group, is constructing a roster of anchors like Abrams, who had stints at NBC and ABC Information; and former CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield. It just lately tapped Michael Corn, the previous “Good Morning America” producer who was embroiled in a sexual harassment go well with that was just lately dropped, as president of stories programming.
Nextstar rebranded WGN America final yr as NewsNation with the objective of launching a “fact-based, unbiased” community that delivers information 24 hours a day by subsequent yr. At the moment, it has a mixture of information and re-runs which can be averaging round 85,000 whole viewers a day. NewsNation’s highest rated present is cop-drama “Blue Bloods,” which averages round 350,000 whole viewers an episode, whereas the primetime slate pulls in a mean of fifty,000 viewers nightly.
Final week, Dan Abrams’ 9pm present averages round 54,000 viewers whereas Ashley Banfield’s 10pm present introduced in simply 33,000,
“The scores are lower than native information,” a supply mentioned.
“They’re horrendous,” added one other, noting that Corn “bought a cut price in Chris Cuomo.”
“If Cuomo doubles the scores to 100,000,” the rent will “be price it,” the supply concluded.
Nonetheless, an viewers of 100,000 is a fraction of what Cuomo used to drag. His 9 pm present on CNN nabbed practically 2 million whole viewers in 2020 and round 1 million whole viewers on common in its final yr. Even when Cuomo’s scores started to tumble after after the resignation of his brother, who was accused of sexual harassment by a number of girls, he nonetheless pulled in practically 700,000 whole viewers.
Nonetheless, for Cuomo, it’s not essentially all about {dollars} and cents in the long run, in line with one supply.
“Chris has an enormous ego,” the supply added. “He loves to listen to himself speak.”
The previous CNN star is suing his outdated community for a staggering $125 million in damages after he was fired for his personal sexual harassment scandal and allegedly utilizing his press connections to help the protection of his embattled older brother.
