Chris Cuomo Wants WarnerMedia, CNN to Pay Him $125 Million in Damages
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV EditorChris Cuomo wants CNN parent WarnerMedia to keep paying him even though he no longer works there.The former CNN primetime anchor alleged in an arbitration filing Wednesday that his career has suffered damages in excess of $125 million, and suggested CNN had allowed several of his one-time colleagues to violate standards and practices in a bid to keep viewership.
The anchor also said his firing by CNN late last year cost him nearly $15 million in salary that he would have earned if he had served out his last contract.In the filing, Cuomo’s attorneys argued that CNN favorites like Don Lemon and Jake Tapper, as well as analyst Jeffrey Toobin, had potentially violated the news outlet’s practices, but were not punished for doing so. “As long as CNN’s ratings would not be hurt, [former CNN Worldwide President Jeff] Zucker and [former CNN Chief Marketing Officer Allison] Gollust were more than willing to overlook major transgressions by CNN personalities,” Cuomo’s filing alleges, “or even engage in blatant misconduct themselves.” CNN declined to comment.Cuomo and CNN parted ways last year after the anchor was caught up in the sexual-harassment scandal that engulfed his brother, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
The younger Cuomo was found by CNN to be aiding his brother’s team of officials, and after initially being suspended, was ousted.
Cuomo maintains that CNN knew of the counsel he was offering his sibling. In February, however, the move to separate CNN from the anchor had surprising consequences: Zucker resigned after failing to disclose a personal relationship with Gollust, and Gollust left the company within weeks.
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