The Cuomo brothers appear to have a bit of a problem. While the New York Times notes
that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is mired in a series of political scandals that include
the potential cover-up of COVID-related nursing home deaths, as well as several allegations
of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior leveled against him, his brother Chris is
taking hits of his own. Ratings for his show, CNN'S Cuomo Prime Time, fell rather dramatically
from just over 5 million in early January to 2.1 million by the end of the month.
To be fair, CNN has been shedding viewers since President Joe Biden took office on January
20 anyway, according to ratings from Nielson. While it enjoyed a boost between November
4 to January 20, when the network averaged 2.5 million primetime viewers, it has only
been able to attract 1.6 million viewers from the Biden inauguration day through to March
15.
But Chris Cuomo's decline in viewership is also being linked to his brother Andrew's
failing political fortunes and his inability to cover them, due to a conflict of interest,
which he declared on March 1st.
"Obviously I am aware of what's going on with my brother, and obviously I cannot cover it,
because he is my brother."
Chris continued, saying,
"Now, of course CNN has to cover it, they have covered it extensively, and they will
continue to do so. I have always cared very deeply about these issues and profoundly so."
Chris Cuomo had been under a company-imposed ban on interviewing his older brother since
2013, when he called his brother "governor" on air, and critics went on social media to
ask whether it was possible for one to cover a sibling fairly. But that changed in March
of 2020, when the coronavirus brought Andrew Cuomo to the heart of the story — and that,
the New York Times says, is when CNN cleared Chris to speak with his brother on air.
It wasn't long before the brothers became must-see TV as the nation fell into the relentless
grip of the coronavirus pandemic, Chris Cuomo fell ill himself and had to anchor his show
from his basement, and the governor was seen as a competent foil next to former President
Donald Trump. Syracuse University media law professor Roy Gutterman told USA Today,
"I found these interviews to be very entertaining, and perhaps Chris could ask questions of his
brother that other people can't. But from the very beginning, I thought it was wildly
inappropriate."
Piers Morgan weighed in on the Cuomo-Cuomo show, saying,
"It flies against every preconceived notion of normal CNN standards and practices. But
the corona governor talking to his victim brother is incredible to watch."
Chris Cuomo himself must have felt uneasy about having his brother on his show, because
during the early days of the pandemic, he felt the need to explain himself and the reason
why he felt interviewing his brother Andrew was the right thing to do. He said on his
SiriusXM show,
"I wanted people to see that he's not just super-intense on this all the time—that
he's living it with you. [...] There will come a time when there's an accountability
measure where it will no longer make sense for it to be me [interviewing Andrew]."
He didn't have long to wait for that time to come. It finally did, in mid-February of
2021, less than a year after the Cuomo brothers were allowed to speak to each other on television,
when CNN said it was reinstating the ban on having Chris speak to his older brother. To
explain the off-again, on-again ban, the network said in a statement,:
"We felt that Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges of what millions of American
families were struggling with was of significant human interest. As a result, we made an exception
to a rule that we have had in place since 2013 which prevents Chris from interviewing
his brother, and that rule remains in place today."
As Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan points out, it might have been difficult
for CNN to uphold the Cuomo-Cuomo ban just as the coronavirus pandemic was ramping up
and moving full steam ahead, and particularly in light of the ratings boost Cuomo Prime
Time was getting at the time. But she also says that if it was acceptable for Chris to
speak to Andrew about his COVID policies in the spring, it should also be acceptable to
speak to him about the more serious subjects that are hurting the governor today.
And if the brotherly banter was not meant to be the exception that CNN has positioned
it to be, that should also have been made clear from the start. Because right now, many
media experts agree that the credibility of both Cuomo and CNN are on the line, and both
appear to be taking a big hit.
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