Former Andrew Cuomo aide could replace Jeff Zucker as CNN president: report

A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., is viewed as a top internal candidate to replace CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker, according to a new report.

Allison Gollust, now CNN's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, was appointed Cuomo's communications director in 2012 before bolting to join Zucker four months later at CNN.

NBC media reporter Dylan Byers floated the possibility of Gollust ascending to Zucker's position in a tweet. Gollust became close to Zucker after a 15-year tenure at NBC before her brief work in the Cuomo administration.

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Gollust is not the most prominent figure at CNN to have a Cuomo connection, of course.

CNN has recently faced controversy over its friendly interviews of Gov. Cuomo by his younger brother Chris Cuomo, in light of revelations about a possible cover-up of nursing home deaths due to the governor's coronavirus policies. While CNN has covered the controversy in recent days, the younger Cuomo, who hosts the critical 9 p.m. ET time slot, has ignored it.

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Before moving to CNN in 2013, Zucker served as president of NBCUniversal and helped make future President Donald Trump even more of a household name with the successful reality NBC show "The Apprentice." Then, as Trump took the political world by storm in 2015, CNN gave him blanket coverage, leading to criticism from even liberal figures that it played a critical role in his eventual White House victory.

Under Zucker's guidance, CNN transitioned from a just-the-facts approach to the news to one of sharp partisan opposition to Trump. Its primetime lineup consists of liberal opinion hosts like Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, and Anderson Cooper, and its morning and daytime coverage is peppered by snarky chyrons and partisan commentary from figures like Jake Tapper and Brianna Keilar, spliced with news reporting.

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Leaked audio tapes from the right-wing group Project Veritas showed Zucker's hostility toward Trump and desire to ignore the Hunter Biden laptop story that Big Tech outlets suppressed in October.

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CNN saw a spike in ratings during the 2020 presidential election but suffered a dramatic decline since Inauguration Day and before Trump's second impeachment trial. According to Nielsen Media Research, CNN was down double-digits in primetime and total day across the board in the weeks after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, compared to the time period of Election Day through inauguration.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.