Analysis: Did Chris Cuomo Engineer Jeff Zucker's Fall From CNN Grace?

When CNN President Jeff Zucker announced his resignation on Feb. 2, the reaction across the media industry could be encapsulated with the acronym question “WTF?” Even more unexpected was the reason for Zucker’s abrupt farewell: the acknowledgment that he was in an undisclosed romantic relationship with a fellow executive, which violated company policy.

However, since Zucker’s announcement, media reports have percolated that Zucker’s actions were the result of machinations by Chris Cuomo, the CNN primetime anchor fired by Zucker in December following the revelations of in-depth details on how he assisted his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when the latter was facing a growing controversy over sexual harassment accusations.

Within CNN, there has been tumult involving the network’s star broadcasters and executives on the circumstances of Zucker’s downfall that has grown into a public scandal.

See Also: Jeff Zucker Resigns As CNN President Over Undisclosed Relationship With Colleague

Inconsistent Policies: In announcing he was stepping down, Zucker issued a statement that said, “As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years. I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong. As a result, I am resigning today.”

According to combined media reports, the beginning of the end of Zucker’s nine-year presidency at CNN occurred after Cuomo’s termination, when the former anchor’s legal team began to press for severance pay. One anonymous source claimed Cuomo’s contract spelled out a severance package as high as $18 million, but at Zucker’s instruction, Cuomo was not paid anything.

The Cuomo legal team also sought to raise questions on whether the network was applying the concept of transparency on an inconsistent basis — after all, the attorneys argued, Cuomo had been transparent with his superiors that he was helping his embattled brother hold on to the New York governorship whereas Zucker was widely known within the company to be in a relationship with Allison Gollust, a CNN executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

Unlike Cuomo, the ex-anchor’s lawyers argued, Zucker violated company policy by not being transparent and openly acknowledging the nature of the relationship.

Gollust joined CNN in 2013 from NBC, where she and Zucker had worked together for 15 years. Gollust filed for divorce from her husband, Tradeweb Markets President William Hunt, in 2015, with the divorce finalized two years later. Zucker was divorced from his wife, Caryn Zucker, a former supervisor on “Saturday Night Live,” in 2019.

Just when their relationship turned romantic is unclear, though it appears it began when both were still married. Former CNN broadcaster Soledad O’Brien tweeted the Zucker-Gollust affair “was an open secret and I haven’t even worked there for like 8 years” while former CNN reporter Roland Martin tweeted, “It was an open secret at @CNN that Jeff Zucker and Allison Golust, who he hired as head of communications, were having an affair. I was only there with them for four months in 2013 and knew. NBC folks knew when they worked together there.”

A Daily Mail article from April 2017 noted an argument between Zucker and Gollust at a media industry party that seemed to go beyond a boss-worker disagreement, with one unnamed observer quipping, “It looked like she was reprimanding her husband or something.”

A Blunt Axe Falls: As this personnel drama unfolded, CNN was also in the midst of a corporate drama. WarnerMedia, the unit AT&T Inc. T which is the network’s parent company, is in the process of being spun off and into a merger with Discovery Inc. DISCA to create a new entity called Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN was also making a somewhat belated entrance into the streaming sector with CNN+.

The last thing the network needed at this time was tumult, but that’s what it got when WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar reportedly gave Zucker the ultimatum of resigning or being fired.

Puck News obtained a recording of a Feb. 2 meeting between Kilar and high-level employees in CNN’s Washington, D.C., bureau and it seemed that the decision did not go well.

“I know this isn’t an ideal time,” Kilar said. “Our values precede any business consideration.”

Kilar wasn’t entirely transparent in answering questions from the CNN team regarding the timeline that led to Zucker’s departure, only stating it took place in a process “with an appropriate sense of urgency.” He added that negotiations on Cuomo’s severance payment could begin because the internal probe into the circumstances of the ex-anchor’s firing was over.

That news was not welcomed by CNN anchor Jake Tapper.

“An outside observer might say, ‘Well, it looks like Chris Cuomo succeeded,’” Tapper said. “He threatened. Jeff said we don’t negotiate with terrorists. And Chris blew the place up. How do we get past that perception that this is the bad guy winning?”

In the Puck News recording, Tapper bluntly accused Cuomo of hiring “a high-powered lawyer who has a scorched-earth policy” who threatened to take down Zucker by leaking the news of his relationship with Gollust unless he received his severance pay.

“Stuff starts getting leaked to gossip websites about Jeff and Allison,” Tapper continued. “And then weeks later, Jeff comes forward, discloses this and resigns – not willingly.”

Kilar responded, “When it comes to perception, all I can offer you, Jake, is: Every minute of every day we’ve got what’s on the screens [of CNN]. I believe that’s what’s going to define us going forward, far more than what’s happened today and what you alluded to.”

Another CNN broadcaster, Dana Bash, echoed Tapper’s concerns.

“For a lot of us, the feeling is that, for Jeff, the punishment didn’t fit the crime,” Bash said. “There are so many people who work here and got a second chance, because that’s what Jeff believed in, and it feels like he didn’t get that chance.”

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What Happens Next: Gollust is still employed by CNN and issued a statement expressing remorse on what transpired.

"Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years," her statement said. "Recently, our relationship changed during COVID. I regret that we didn't disclose it at the right time. I'm incredibly proud of my time at CNN and look forward to continuing the great work we do everyday."

Cuomo has publicly commented on the events of this week and Zucker has not issued any statement since leaving CNN.

The Zucker incident might be a sordid distraction from the network’s dismal ratings. Adweek reported CNN “has been delivering Nielsen ratings not seen since before Trump took office,” adding that it has “shed -77% in total primetime viewers, -82% in adults 25-54 during primetime, -74% in total day viewers and -81% in adults 25-54 across total day vs. what the network averaged in those measurements in Jan. 2021.”

And speaking of Donald Trump, the former president offered his own distinctive spin on what sealed Zucker’s fate.

“Jeff Zucker is not out at CNN for ‘concealing a relationship’ as the Fake New York Times writes on its front page headline,” Trump said in a statement. “Zucker is happy and proud (and lucky!) that he can have a relationship. He is out because of horrible ratings down 90%, an all-time low!”

Photo: Jeff Zucker, courtesy Fortune Live Media / Flickr Creative Commons