Radio host and Daily Caller Editorial Director Vince Coglianese said Chris Cuomo’s suspension will be detrimental to CNN during a Tuesday appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
CNN “indefinitely” suspended Cuomo on Tuesday after the New York Attorney General’s office released evidence that the “Cuomo Prime Time” host helped assist his brother, former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with his sexual assault case.
Coglianese told Carlson that Cuomo was “the only draw” that the network had and was the sole person keeping the channel’s ratings up. (RELATED: REPORT: Chris Cuomo Advised His Brother On How To Handle Sexual Harassment Allegations)
“The reality is, Chris Cuomo is the only draw that network has had,” Coglianese said. “If you think about this, CNN once had a legendary status as being the type of place you could turn to for news. That’s gone, that’s been gone for many years now.”
“He [Cuomo] was the best that they could come up with. As Jason Whitlock said, ‘the typical American meathead was about the only thing that was getting an audience.'”
The “Vince and Jason Save The Nation” host added that Cuomo consistently appeared on Don Lemon’s show in order to raise his ratings, since his ratings continued to be low. He said the ruling class cares about the fellow elites at other news outlets, such as The Atlantic magazine and The New York Times, rather than the American people.
“This is going to be a big problem for CNN going forward,” Coglianese said.
CNN said they will review the transcripts and exhibits released by the attorney general’s office. The documents show the Cuomo worked with his brother’s top-aide Melissa DeRosa on preparing the governor’s responses to the sexual assault allegations and got in touch with media contacts to obtain information on his brother’s accusers.
His brother resigned as governor in August as a result of the Attorney General Letitia James releasing a report confirming that Cuomo sexually harassed eleven women. Independent investigations were conducted into the allegations before the report’s release.
Cuomo’s ratings hit an all-time low in early November after pulling in a total average of 684,000 viewers, according to the Wrap. In comparison, Fox News’ Sean Hannity had an average viewership of 1.137 million. Despite having low ratings, Cuomo held the highest primetime ratings in comparison to his colleagues Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon.
Both CNN and MSNBC experienced a “profound drop” in their ratings over the past year, as CNN’s primetime shows had a total of 752,000 average primetime viewers while MSNBC had a total of 1,497,500. Fox News has continued to hold the highest number of ratings and overall viewership by a significant margin.