Monday night marked the much-anticipated return to cable news for Chris Cuomo, whose NewsNation show made its debut less than a year after CNN fired him for advising his then-governor brother amid sexual misconduct scandals. The top-rated host at CNN when he was canned, Cuomo was brought to NewsNation to help the fledgling “unbiased” news network build its viewership, which has struggled mightily since its full-scale launch last year. And though his eponymous show improved markedly over its predecessor, it still trailed far behind the other major cable news networks in its time slot—and even placed behind little-watchedpro-Trump outlet Newsmax. According to Mediaite, Cuomo pulled in 147,000 total viewers in the 8 p.m. ET hour, more than three times the average audience that NewsNation attracted in the same time slot last Monday. At the same time, Cuomo tallied 8,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic, trailing NewsNation Prime last week. Additionally, Cuomo finished behind Newsmax’s Eric Bolling: The Balance, which pulled in just 151,000 viewers overall and 16,000 in the demo. CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, which placed third among cable news programs at 8 p.m., more than quintupled Cuomo’s total audience with 814,000 viewers while averaging 184,000 in the demographic.
