Chris Cuomo was always ridiculous, but you don’t get fired for that

CNN suspended Chris Suomo after documents revealed that he had been heavily involved in defending his brother Andrew Cuomo when Andrew was facing accusations of sexually inappropriate behaviour.Donald Bowers/Getty Images.

On Tuesday of last week, CNN suspended the prime-time anchor from his job after documents released by the New York State Attorney-General’s office revealed that Cuomo had been heavily involved in defending his brother Andrew Cuomo when Andrew was governor of New York and facing accusations of sexually inappropriate behaviour.

He’s the epitome of a cable news host: a big presence, a booming voice and an aggressive style.

In April of last year, during the first wave of COVID-19, when many people were under lockdown and deeply anxious about the pandemic, Chris Cuomo and his brother Andrew began doing a perplexing vaudeville act on CNN regularly.

But there’s always been something of the buffoon about Chris Cuomo, and John Oliver was the first to spot the buffoonery beneath the cable news host’s bluster.

Oliver gleefully showed viewers how Cuomo posted the most pretentious blather about his job at CNN, his workout routines and Cuomo’s bizarre, hectoring tone aimed at his producer Rose, who was obliged to film these activities and blather for Cuomo’s Instagram account.

“But the oddest feature of Chris Cuomo’s Instagram is just videos of him working out,” Oliver said.

What Oliver did was separate the cable news host from the studio, the cameras and all the other trappings of prime-time cable news shows.