Cuomo Prime Time Exec Producer Asked to Leave After Feeling ‘Threatened’: Report

CNN’s Chris Cuomo is continuing to face scrutiny in the wake of another controversy.

On Monday night Page Six reported on former Cuomo Prime Time executive producer Melanie Buck asking to leave the show last year and move elsewhere at CNN.

Buck, who was EP of the prime time show from early 2018 to early 2020, told Page Six, “I spent two years as EP on Chris’ show and I’m proud to have led it to #1 at CNN. We ultimately had significant differences, and I asked to leave the show. I have moved on and am looking forward to my latest role with CNN+.”

The report says “more than one source” told them Buck “felt threatened.”

This past Friday, Shelley Ross — a former ABC executive producer who Cuomo used to work for — accused the CNN host of sexually harassing him at a party in 2005. She said Cuomo grabbed her butt and remarked, “I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss.”

Ross’ account included an email Cuomo apparently sent afterwards, which said he was “ashamed” and added, “Pass along my apology to your very good and noble husband… and I apologize to you as well, for even putting you in such a position.”

Cuomo said in a statement, “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”

CNN has not commented publicly on the matter, something Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple called out the cable news network for on Monday.

Wemple wrote about the “hush” at CNN over this new reporting.

“It looks as if CNN is going to leave the matter there,” he said. “Thus far, the network’s PR operation has yet to issue a statement about how the company views the matter. On his Friday night program, Cuomo himself didn’t mention the story. Nor did host Brian Stelter on the Sunday media show ‘Reliable Sources.’ (The ‘Reliable Sources’ newsletter — a joint venture of Stelter and CNN’s Oliver Darcy — did cover the controversy.)”

Wemple said CNN has “reveal[ed] the network’s priorities” in how it’s responded to scandals concerning their top-rated host.

“If CNN can speak up — however tepidly — about journalism ethics, can’t it offer even a token statement about sexual harassment? Surely the network would be exploding with commentary if the same claim surfaced against a host on a certain competing cable-news network,” he added.

The renewed scrutiny on Cuomo comes after the criticism earlier this year of Cuomo and CNN over Andrew Cuomo scandal.

Wemple wrote last week, after Ross went public, that this allegation shows Cuomo to be a “#MeToo hypocrite.”