Jeff Zucker Reaches Big Settlement with CNN

Jeff Zucker, the former head of CNN, has reached a settlement with WarnerMedia – CNN’s former parent company – over the terms of his exit and compensation package. Zucker was abruptly forced out from CNN last month after it became public that he had been engaged in a long term affair with another CNN employee.

Allison Gollust was once a senior aide to the former governor of New York Andrew Cuomo and she later became a chief CNN spokesperson. Gollust and the divorced Jeff Zucker, who made his mark in media by running NBC’s entertainment division, had been dating one another for a long time when Zucker fired Chris Cuomo last December from his star position as a prime time anchor with CNN. The younger Cuomo was allegedly terminated because of he worked to closely with big brother Andrew Cuomo during the latter’s prolonged attempt to deal with accusations of the sexual assault of subordinates.

Chris Cuomo did not take his firing lying down and moved to sue CNN. CNN has recently been acquired by new ownership who are trying to put out the fire surrounding the whole Chris Cuomo affair. That is said to be part of the reason from Jeff Zucker’s removal – Zucker was doing something not so different than what got Cuomo fired.

But Jeff Zucker’s ouster may have had a lot more to do with it than that. The man had little success with NBC as its ratings plummeted during his tutelage. And the same thing, not surprisingly, happened to CNN when he ran it. So the new owners clearly had every reason to push him out.

Deadline reported that Jeff Zucker agreed to terms with CNN a few weeks ago to accept an offer made at the time of his exit. Deadline said that the details of the agreed upon deal are not yet public, but the original offer would see Jeff Zucker walk away with a one-time payment of around $10 million.