CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s viewership among women experienced a sharp decline last week after a New York State Attorney General’s report that found his brother, the outgoing governor of New York, sexually harassed at least 11 women.
Cuomo hosts CNN’s 8 p.m. hour, which averaged 453,000 total female viewers, including only 76,000 in the 25 to 54 age demographic on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week.
Those figures represent a 21 percent dip from Cuomo’s second-quarter average of 570,000, the Wrap reported, citing Nielsen Media Research ratings data.
Cuomo last appeared on the network on Thursday and he did not mention at any point last week the accusations against his brother Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who announced his resignation Tuesday.
During his final show of the week on Thursday, the host said he would be taking a vacation for his birthday.
“Every year I take my birthday week off. I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ll be fishing, I’ll be hanging out with you and I’ll be making memories with the kids.”
Chris Cuomo was mentioned in the attorney general’s report, which stated that the anchor sent his brother an email in which he proposed lines that were eventually included in a late February statement to respond to allegations that were made against him last winter.
When news of his collaboration with his brother first came to light through media reports, Chris Cuomo apologized and said it wouldn’t happen again.
CNN has barred Cuomo from covering his brother, and CNN President Jeff Zucker has declined to suspend him, arguing doing so would be “punishment for the sake of punishing,” but acknowledged the anchor had made “a mistake.”
Several media critics have said Cuomo’s contacts with his brother during the early days of the scandal raise serious journalistic ethics questions and some have called for the network to launch an investigation into the incident.