Chris Cuomo is poised to take an enormous pay lower as he joins NewsNation, a fledgling cable TV channel with a tiny viewers, The Publish has discovered.
Cuomo, who was reportedly banking $6 million a yr for his “Cuomo Prime Time” present on CNN earlier than he was fired final yr, will probably earn only a fraction of that — insiders speculate the determine may very well be round $1 million — as he begins his new gig at NewsNation this fall, sources informed The Publish.
“I don’t assume he had plenty of 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 presents from any of the large 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 evening. The information marked the primary time Cuomo has appeared on TV since being canned from CNN final yr over his function in advising his older brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“I had determined that I can’t return to what individuals see as ‘the large sport,’” Cuomo informed Abrams final evening. “I don’t assume I could make a distinction there. I feel we want rebel media. I feel we want retailers that aren’t fringe and simply attempting 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 conserving 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job doesn’t embrace a clothes allowance or paid-for flights from his home within the Hamptons to the studio like his outdated job had, in keeping with sources near the state of affairs.
That’s even supposing Cuomo will probably be getting a brand-new studio within the outdated WPIX headquarters on 220 E. forty second St. A rep from NewsNation confirmed that the corporate has been within the means of renovating a number of studios and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 government 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 lately tapped Michael Corn, the previous “Good Morning America” producer who was embroiled in a sexual harassment go well with that was lately dropped, as president of stories programming.
Nexstar rebranded WGN America final yr as NewsNation with the purpose of launching a “fact-based, unbiased” community that delivers information 24 hours a day by subsequent yr. Presently, it has a mixture of information and reruns which might be averaging round 85,000 complete viewers a day. NewsNation’s highest-rated present is cop drama “Blue Bloods,” which averages round 350,000 complete viewers an episode, whereas the primetime slate pulls in a mean of fifty,000 viewers nightly.
Final week, Abrams’ 9 p.m. present averaged round 54,000 viewers whereas Banfield’s 10 p.m. present introduced in simply 33,000.
“The rankings are lower than native information,” a supply mentioned.
“They’re horrendous,” added one other, noting that Corn “acquired a discount in Chris Cuomo.”
“If Cuomo doubles the rankings to 100,000,” the rent will “be value it,” the supply concluded.
Nonetheless, an viewers of 100,000 is a fraction of what Cuomo used to tug. His 9 p.m. present on CNN nabbed almost 2 million complete viewers in 2020 and round 1 million complete viewers on common in its final yr. Even when Cuomo’s rankings 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 almost 700,000 complete viewers.
Nonetheless, for Cuomo, it’s not essentially all about dollars and cents in the long run, in keeping with one supply.
“Chris has an enormous ego,” the supply added. “He loves to listen to himself discuss.”
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 assist the protection of his embattled older brother.
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