Cuomo Loses Book Deal After Getting Canned From CNN

Chris Cuomo continues his terrible week, as his publisher cancels the book deal and CNN states it will not give him severance.

A spokesperson for HarperCollins informed the Associated Press on Tuesday that the publisher would not release Mr Cuomo’s upcoming book of political commentary, Deep Denial. AP reported that Jeff Zucker , president of CNN, told employees at a meeting on Tuesday that Mr Cuomo wouldn’t be receiving severance.

HarperCollins did not elaborate on its decision.

“We do not intend to publish the book,” the publisher bluntly told The Daily Beast.

After the network claimed it had “new information” about Mr. Cuomo ‘s behind-the-scenes efforts to help Andrew Cuomo in his fight against the sexual harassment allegations that led to his resignation, the network fired Mr. Cuomo.

“Chris Cuomo was suspended earlier this week pending further evaluation of new information that came to light about his involvement with his brother’s defense,” the network said on Saturday. “We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately.”

Mr Cuomo denied any wrongdoing.

“This is not how I want my time at CNN to end but I have already told you why and how I helped my brother,” he tweeted shortly after the announcement. “So let me now say as disappointing as this is, I could not be more proud of the team at Cuomo Prime Time and the work we did as CNN’s #1 show in the most competitive time slot.”

According to AP sources, Mr. Zucker claimed that CNN decided against the severance following concluding Mr. Cuomo had lied about the company. The request for comment from The Independent was declined by the network.

However, this may not be the end. According to the New York Post, Mr. Cuomo may sue the network for not paying $18m of his contract. According to Puck reporter Matthew Belloni both sides have reacted well with Mr. Cuomo retaining Bryan Freedman who represented Megyn’s abrupt departure from NBC.

It has been a dramatizing few days for Mr. Cuomo who was CNN’s top-rated anchor, and a ubiquitous presence in US news.

Monday’s announcement by Mr. Cuomo was that he would also be retiring from the long-running SiriusXM radio program Let’s Get After it.

“The way my time ended at CNN was hard,” the host explained in a statement. “While I have a thick skin, I also have a family, for whom the past week has been extraordinarily difficult. So, right now, I have to take a step back and focus on what comes next.”

We reached out to Mr. Cuomo’s spokesperson for comment.