Move to CNN
In February 2013, Cuomo moved to CNN to co-host its morning show. He made his debut on CNN as field anchor on the February 8, 2013, episode of Piers Morgan Tonight, covering the February 2013 North American blizzard. In March 2018, while serving as the co-anchor of CNN's morning show New Day, CNN announced that Cuomo would move to prime time to host Cuomo Prime Time.
In October 2017, sister network HLN premiered a new documentary series hosted by the anchor, Inside with Chris Cuomo, which focused on "stories affecting real people, in real towns and cities across America." In September 2018, he began hosting a two-hour weekday radio show "Let's Get After It" on the P.O.T.U.S. channel on SiriusXM.
On August 13, 2019, in Shelter Island, New York, Cuomo threatened to throw a heckler down a flight of stairs at a bar and chastised him with profanity-laced insults after the man called him Fredo, in reference to the unglamorous fictional character from The Godfather novel and films. Cuomo told the man that the use of the name "Fredo" was equivalent to "the n-word" for Italian-Americans, which caused debate on Twitter about the assertion. Cuomo addressed the incident publicly, tweeting his appreciation to his supporters but acknowledging that he "should be better than what [he] oppose[s]."
While recovering from COVID-19 in early 2020, Chris Cuomo interviewed his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, on his CNN program. After reports about sexual harassment allegations against his brother surfaced, Cuomo said on his program in March 2021 that he could not cover any issues regarding the allegations on the program, acknowledging his obvious conflict of interest.
In May 2021, Cuomo was reported to have participated in strategic discussions to advise his brother on how to respond to the allegations. CNN called Cuomo's engagement in the conversations "inappropriate" but said that it would not take any disciplinary action against him. Multiple CNN staffers said they were "vexed" by Cuomo's conduct and the violation of journalism ethics and standards. Cuomo subsequently issued an apology and stated that advising his brother was a "mistake" that would "never happen again". In August, Cuomo addressed his brother's impending resignation, reiterating he was not an adviser to Andrew and noting he had persuaded his brother to step down as governor.
On November 29, 2021, the New York attorney general's office released documents that show Cuomo used his media sources to uncover information about his brother's known accusers and inquire about the possibility of new accusers who had yet to come forward publicly. The documents also show that Cuomo helped formulate statements for Andrew and that Cuomo was actively in touch with a top aide to Andrew about future reports about Andrew's alleged misconduct. The following day, Cuomo was suspended indefinitely from CNN. Cuomo called his suspension "embarrassing" but said he understood "why some people feel the way they do about what I did". Following his suspension, several conservative commentators defended Cuomo. These supporters include Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Greg Gutfeld.
On December 4, after an internal review conducted by a law firm, CNN terminated Cuomo's employment and said they would investigate Cuomo's "involvement with his brother's defense". Cuomo stated he never tried to influence his own network's coverage of his brother's sexual allegation problems. In February 2022, Cuomo mentioned in a recorded interview that he "was going to kill everybody including myself" after his firing.
In September 2021, Cuomo's former boss Shelley Ross accused him of sexual harassment in a New York Times op-ed. Stopping short of asking him to be fired from CNN, she said she would "like to see him journalistically repent". Cuomo admitted to the incident, describing it as "not sexual in nature". He said he "apologized to her then, and I meant it".
In December 2021, Debra Katz, the attorney for another former colleague of Cuomo's, informed CNN that her client had accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct. The woman claimed that Cuomo invited her to his office for lunch and after the woman rejected Cuomo's sexual advances, Cuomo allegedly assaulted her. Katz has since claimed that this accusation precipitated Cuomo's termination.
On December 6, 2021, Cuomo announced he would be leaving his program on SiriusXM. On the same day, it was reported that Cuomo threatened to file a lawsuit against CNN to recover the $18 million of his remaining contract because network president Jeff Zucker understood the details of Cuomo's involvement with his brother's defense. Zucker has denied this was the case, and subsequently claimed in a virtual meeting with employees that he had reprimanded Cuomo in May, and that "Chris had gone further than he had told me and told other members of our senior executive team". On December 7, 2021, HarperCollins announced they would not be going forward in publishing Cuomo's book, originally titled Deep Denial in the fall of 2022. The book was to be an analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the first presidency of Donald Trump. On March 16, 2022, Cuomo filed a demand for arbitration claiming $125 million in damages against Turner Services and CNN America. The filing claimed Cuomo's "journalistic integrity" was "unjustifiably smeared", making the chance to find similar work impossible. He was looking to recover his remaining salary and future wages forfeited for his reputation being damaged.
