CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has held discussions in recent months with former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, according to sources.
The talks reportedly reflect Weiss’s interest in bringing Cuomo to the Tiffany Network. Sources first told Status on Monday that the pair had exchanged text messages and met in person.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed on Tuesday to Our News Outlet that the conversations had taken place.
Cuomo, however, remains under a multiyear contract with NewsNation that he signed in 2024. He is also pursuing a wrongful-termination lawsuit against CNN over his 2021 dismissal.
NewsNation is expected to become an asset of CBS News parent company Paramount next year, making it unlikely that CBS would hire Cuomo while his lawsuit remains active.
Cuomo, 56, left CNN in December 2021 after supporting his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, during the sexual-harassment scandal that ultimately led to the governor’s resignation. Kaitlan Collins now occupies his former 9 p.m. time slot.
Sources said Weiss, 42, considers Cuomo a talented and “skilled broadcaster.”
CBS News has continued to struggle with historically weak ratings. CBS Mornings, for example, recorded its lowest-rated week ever during the week of July 13.
Bari Weiss is considering another potential addition as she works to reverse CBS News’ sinking ratings
Chris Cuomo, pictured outside CNN’s New York office with then-co-host Don Lemon in October 2018, has spoken with Free Press founder Bari Weiss in recent months, according to sources
CBS Mornings could be a potential destination for Cuomo if the discussions progress, Status founder and former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy wrote in his report.
Weiss took charge in October after being recruited by then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison. Soon afterward, she reassigned Tony Dokoupil from Mornings to the perennially last-place Evening News.
In the weeks leading up to that move, Weiss hired former ABC chief national correspondent Matt Gutman as CBS News’ chief reporter.
Weiss also recently brought in New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. The network announced last month that he would become a 60 Minutes correspondent.
Norah O’Donnell, the former anchor of CBS Evening News, was named a correspondent as part of the changes. The moves form part of a broader effort to modernize CBS and attract a more centrist audience.
MORE ON THIS: Secret Service Stops Alleged Trump Assassination Attempt; Venezuelan National Arrested With Guns Near White House
Cuomo could suit that strategy, given the range of viewpoints featured in his post-CNN work, including appearances by conservatives such as Tucker Carlson and Bill O’Reilly.
Sources told Status that Weiss, founder of the center-right Free Press, has been “enraptured” by Cuomo and that style of programming.
Cuomo currently hosts the aptly named Cuomo on NewsNation. The program debuted in 2022.
Cuomo currently presents the nightly NewsNation program Cuomo, which launched in 2022
CBS ratings remain historically low. Mornings, after losing anchor Tony Dokoupil earlier this year, posted its lowest-rated week ever during the week of July 13. The program could be a landing spot for Cuomo, who spent nearly nine years at CNN
Dokoupil, meanwhile, recently posted his weakest monthly ratings performance on Evening News since taking over in January. Weiss reassigned him after a disastrous dual-anchor experiment by her predecessors that caused more than 1.2 million viewers to turn away.
The program subsequently fell below 4 million total viewers, a significant threshold that Dokoupil now frequently fails to reach.
Insiders told Status last month that they believed Weiss’s decisions since taking over had caused irreversible damage to the CBS brand.
One CBS News staffer told the publication: “The problem is clearly Bari. We are all trying to clean this up, but we need Ellison’s help.”
The Daily Mail has contacted CBS for comment.
Cuomo is suing CNN for $125 million, alleging that the network wrongfully terminated him and harmed his reputation by claiming he had misled executives about helping his brother respond to sexual-harassment allegations.
“In fact, as the limited information released from WarnerMedia’s investigation makes clear, CNN’s highest-level executives not only knew about Chris’s involvement in helping his brother but also actively assisted the Governor, both through Chris and directly themselves,” Cuomo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a 2022 filing.
“As CNN has admitted, network standards were changed in a calculated decision to boost ratings. When those practices were called into question, Chris was made the scapegoat.”
Cuomo spent nearly nine years at CNN, where he hosted Cuomo Prime Time from 2017 until his departure in November 2021.
