Cuomo's early career in journalism included appearances related to social and political issues on
CNBC,
MSNBC, and
CNN. He was a correspondent and political policy analyst for
Fox News and Fox Broadcast Network's
Fox Files, where he covered a wide range of stories focusing on controversial social issues. When asked if he should be considered a journalist on his show, Cuomo said, "I don't know how that's relevant. I don't care what they classify me as. I'm not forwarding my agenda. That's not my thing. My opinion is irrelevant." When hired for
Fox Files Roger Ailes, the Fox News chairman, called Cuomo "fearless". At ABC and as co-anchor of
20/20, his year-long coverage of heroin addiction revealed the extent to which it was affecting suburban families. 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.
"Fredo" incident 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]."
Andrew Cuomo coverage and suspension from CNN 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.
Sexual misconduct allegations 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. Katz has since claimed that this accusation precipitated Cuomo's termination.
Termination fallout 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.
NewsNation On July 26, 2022, during an interview with
Dan Abrams on
NewsNation, Cuomo announced that he would be hosting a new primetime program on the
Nexstar Media Group-owned channel later that year. The new series,
Cuomo, premiered on October 3, 2022. During the premiere, Cuomo stated that he had "learned lessons good and bad" since his firing from CNN, and that his new show would not be "typical", and would (as with the remainder of NewsNation's programming) aim to be more neutral and less partisan in its commentary and content, arguing that "extremes are not America's majority", and that "In politics what you ignore you often empower. And the right has made a mistake in its silence for too long. Our
election was
not stolen. Your Republican leaders know this." Among the interviews Cuomo gave in his first month with NewsNation included
Kanye West, with whom Cuomo clashed over West's recent antisemitic comments. At the end of 2025, NewsNation noted that
Cuomo was the network's "highest-rated show."
Podcast Cuomo began a podcast,
The Chris Cuomo Project, on July 21, 2022. ==Awards==