Months after ending his two-decade stint with Fox News, Geraldo Rivera is taking his talents to another cable news channel.
The flamboyant journalist and tabloid talk show icon has joined upstart “centrist” network NewsNation as a correspondent-at-large, the news channel announced on Wednesday. He is expected to make his debut appearance on Wednesday night’s broadcast of Chris Cuomo’s primetime show.
“Geraldo is a legendary journalist whose talent and experience is unrivaled in the industry,” NewsNation’s president of news said in a statement. “We look forward to him joining the network and providing our viewers with his one-of-a-kind analysis.”
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The veteran TV personality also took to social media to comment about his new landing spot.
“Delighted to be joining the terrific @NewsNation team,” Rivera tweeted. “They’re kicking butt with original reporting beholding to no party or ideology. These are perilous times in our bitterly divided country. As I have for 54 years, I stand with the militant moderates, patriotic and independent.”
Rivera’s latest TV job follows a somewhat tumultuous break-up with Fox News last summer. Amid a “toxic” rivalry with Fox News star Greg Gutfeld, Rivera announced that he had been “fired” from the network’s top-rated program The Five, where he served as one of the panel show’s rotating “liberal” panelists.
Following his split with The Five, Rivera soon announced that he’d quit the conservative cable giant after 22 years, having joined Fox shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks to become a war correspondent. Meanwhile, the network said they “reached an amicable conclusion with Geraldo” and celebrated his career with a send-off on the morning program Fox & Friends.
Since his Fox departure, Rivera has maintained a constant presence on cable news, making frequent appearances on both NewsNation and CNN. While it was rumored last fall that he was looking to join CNN, the tabloid TV legend told The Daily Beast that there had been “no formal discussions” with the cable news pioneer, though he felt “it would be a good fit.”
Rivera will be joining some familiar faces at his new on-air home. A bevy of former Fox hosts and reporters have landed at NewsNation in recent years, including anchors Leland Vittert and Connel McShane, journalist Laura Ingle and ex-Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt, who was recently tapped to lead a Sunday public affairs show.
Prior to his lengthy run as a Fox News correspondent, Rivera had become a household name due to his decade-plus tenure as the host of The Geraldo Rivera Show and his time as an ABC News investigative journalist and anchor. His highlights (or lowlights) from this period include getting his nose broken during an on-set scuffle between white supremacists and Black activists. He also notoriously unveiled Al Capone’s vault on live TV, only to reveal it was empty.
