NewsNation Staffers Unhappy Promoting Chris Cuomo

The fledgling cable-TV network that has hired Chris Cuomo to host a primetime show this fall is already asking staffers to promote the disgraced anchor — and some aren’t happy about it, reports The NY Post.

Cuomo, whose old 9 p.m. CNN show “Cuomo Prime Time” averaged 1 million nightly viewers in its final year, is being heralded by the brass at NewsNation as a savior for the network — a message that’s provoking grumbling among the rank and file, sources.

“This is going to be like SiriusXM — with Chris instead of Howard Stern,” one source griped.

Chris Cuomo

Employees at NewsNation — launched less than two years ago, with ratings that are a tiny fraction of CNN’s — are likewise bristling over a recent request to plug Cuomo’s new show at the bottom of their email signatures, sources told On the Money.

“It’s all about Chris,” said another apoplectic source. “Can you believe they are asking employees to all plug Chris and not their own shows?”

The Cuomo email signature — which shows the 52-year-old talking head against a blue background with the plug “coming this fall to NewsNation” — stands in contrast to the network’s typical email signatures which depict all of its top anchors, sources said.

Staffers for anchor Ashleigh Banfield — who hosts the 10 p.m. hour and who was among NewsNation’s first big hires with a resume that boasted stints at CNN and MSNBC — are particularly peeved, according to insiders.

“She was meant to be the Rachel Maddow of the network,” according to the source, comparing Banfield to the MSNBC star. “Now here comes Chris, the big swinging d–k.

Ashleigh Banfield

As reported by The Post, the Nexstar-owned network is building a brand new studio for Cuomo at its Midtown offices at 220 E. 42nd St. by the United Nations. Banfield, by contrast, is shooting her show from a studio near her Connecticut home, while her production staff works from NewsNation’s Chicago headquarters, according to a source.

The source added that while NewsNation has a studio set aside for her in its Midtown offices, Banfield has “refused” to use it because it’s “too small.”

Banfield told The Post she was happy to work from “wherever they want me to broadcast.”

Further triggering staffers is news that Dan Abrams, the network’s 9 p.m. host, who already broadcasts from the Big Apple, will also get a studio in the same building as Cuomo this fall.

“Chris Cuomo is simply the latest addition to NewsNation’s expanding roster of talented, experienced journalists,” a rep for NewsNation said. ” As we have since our launch two years ago, we ask our staff to help promote all of our shows, especially the new ones, as much as possible, in as many ways as possible.”