Disgraced CNN talker Chris Cuomo will try to squeeze as much as $60 million from the network because it wrongly fired him in December for moonlighting as big brother Andrew’s public-relations man.
The network pink-slipped the man called Fredo because he misled executives about his role in helping Andrew Cuomo, then governor of New York, fight sex-assault and harassment allegations.
Chris Cuomo, the New York Post reported on Tuesday, says CNN shafted him. And now that chieftain Jeff Zucker has resigned due to his affair with top exec Allison Gollust, Cuomo says his role as the governor’s script writer was hardly a secret.
Zucker Knew
CNN ousted the volcanic Cuomo, who can explode with rage at the drop of hat, in December after New York’s attorney general revealed just how deeply he was involved in Andrew Cuomo’s defense.
The two had also staged an ersatz comedy show, with Andrew repeatedly appearing on Chris’s Prime Time program as he handled the China Virus.
Now, Cuomo says Zucker knew exactly what he was doing.
“Multiple sources tell Page Six that Cuomo … is ready to dig his heels in by claiming that Zucker not only knew about his dealings with the governor, but that the network boss had his own inappropriate dealings with Andrew,” the Post reported.
And Fredo wants more than the $18 million left on his contract. He wants “Megyn Kelly” money: $60 million. Kelly collected a whopping $69 million from NBC when she left that network.
“Chris insists he never did anything for his brother Andrew that Zucker didn’t know about,” a source told the Post:.
His camp believes Zucker wasn’t fired for an inappropriate relationship with Allison Gollust. Everybody knew about that and nobody cared.
What he believes happened is WarnerMedia found something in their investigation into Chris, perhaps internal memos or documents which revealed more about Zucker’s involvement with Andrew Cuomo. Gollust was just a convenient excuse.
Cuomo’s mega-millions demand accounts for the years he had remaining in his career as a “journalist.”
Though Cuomo was arguably never a journalist, but more an embedded Democratic Party propagandist, he is right about one thing: Zucker surely knew he was helping his brother answer the myriad claims of sex assault and harassment.
Keep the Brothers Act Going
Indeed, Zucker was also an ex officio advisor to the governor, the Post reported last week.
Zucker and Gollust “had an inappropriately close friendship with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — personally calling him to do news segments with his brother Chris Cuomo and even coaching him on what to say during his infamous COVID briefings,” the newspaper reported:
Gollust and Zucker — the latter of whom dramatically quit CNN Wednesday after their affair was exposed — also gave Andrew Cuomo endless positive coverage because of their relationship, sources said.
“While those 11:30 a.m. daily briefings by Andrew were across every network, they boosted ratings in a poorly performing slot for CNN,” one source said.
According to a source to Cuomo, “Zucker and Gollust even advised Andrew what to say — how to respond and particularly how to hit back at [President Donald] Trump to make it more compelling TV.
“No network head should be coaching an elected official,” the source added. “It’s absolutely the antithesis of CNN’s standards of business.”
In other words, Zucker did what Chris Cuomo did. As did Gollust, who worked for the governor before she landed at CNN.
As well, Zucker pushed for Andrew Cuomo to appear on Prime Time.
“Zucker also directly reached out to Cuomo at least once to urge him to keep coming on his brother’s show, according to the source,” the Post reported. “They wanted more appearances,” the source told the newspaper.
As for Chris Cuomo, he’s been a publicity nightmare for the network for some time. But his explosive temper and public meltdowns are the least of the network’s embarrassments.
FBI agents arrested a top CNN producer and former Cuomo sidekick, John Griffin, for masterminding a child-rape scheme at his ski home in Vermont. Shortly thereafter, CNN producer Rick Saleeby left the network after after Project Veritas disclosed a recording of his rape fantasy involving a teenage girl. He also sought photos of the girl.
