Chris Cuomo’s CNN show is losing an average of 600,000 viewers each night since his brother Andrew Cuomo became embroiled in scandals over sexual harassment and nursing home deaths.
The governor was a frequent guest on Chris’s show during the height of the COVID pandemic, but he’s now persona non grata on the program. The show has refused to cover the nursing home death scandal and the sexual harassment scandals that have embroiled Andrew Cuomo.
Nielsen Media research shows an average of only 1.6 million viewers each night have tuned into ‘Cuomo Prime Time’ since the ban on Andrew Cuomo went into place in mid-February, according to Fox News.
That’s down from the 2.2 million viewers the program averaged from March 20 to June 24, 2020, when Andrew Cuomo’s popularity soared as he became one of the leading voices in battling the coronavirus in the United States.
Chris Cuomo is hitting a ratings snag, partially due to not covering his brother’s scandals
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing two major scandals: an ever-growing sexual harassment scandal and allegations of undercounting COVID-19 nursing home deaths
The perception of his response has changed, however, as he’s had to battle allegations of a cover-up surrounding the amount of nursing home deaths in New York came as a result of his COVID-19 policies.
He’s also battling numerous allegations of sexual harassment or untoward behavior towards women, with an eighth accuser coming forward on Friday.
Andrew Cuomo has steadily refused to resign in the wake of the mounting scandals and the growing chorus demanding it, from voices such as senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer.
Pictured: The Cuomo brothers together in 2018, before their recent problems
In 2020, ‘Cuomo Prime Time’ was the most-watched show for CNN, averaging 1.8 million viewers a night.
And ratings are getting even worse: So far this week, the show is averaging just 1.2 million viewers, a drop-off of around 600,000 viewers from 2020 averages.
On his March 1 show, Chris Cuomo addressed the elephant in the room.
‘You’re straight with me. I’ll be straight with you. Obviously I’m aware of what is going on with my brother. And obviously I cannot cover it because he is my brother.’
While Chris Cuomo’s ratings are likely down partially because of the scandals not being addressed, his decline comes amid a greater ratings downturn for CNN.
Meanwhile, CNN as a whole is losing around a million viewers on average each night since President Donald Trump left office – and is down nearly 50% in the key 24-54 age group, a report said on Thursday.
The cable news channel had averaged 2.5 million prime-time viewers each night from November 4 through Inauguration Day on January 20, according to a Fox News analysis of Nielsen data.
But data shows the network averaged only 1.6 million total prime-time viewers from January 21, the day after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, through March 15, according to the report.
The decline in viewers is likely a result of the absence of Donald Trump, whose presidency provided wall-to-wall fodder for the news network for four years.