The female producer of Chris Cuomo’s show “Cuomo Prime Time” begged to leave his show after the pair clashed over “significant differences” — with multiple TV sources saying she found the hot-headed host’s behavior threatening.
Melanie Buck was executive producer of “Cuomo Prime Time” from April 2018 but was suddenly replaced by Izzy Povich in March 2020 — shortly before Cuomo melodramatically returned to the world from his basement in the Hamptons following weeks of COVID-19 quarantine.
A CNN insider confirmed Buck went to CNN boss Jeff Zucker and asked to be taken off Cuomo’s show and moved to another department, which he agreed to. The insider denied rumors that Buck was given a significant pay-off to stay silent over her spat with the agitable anchor.
More than one source told us of Buck, “She felt threatened”
Buck exclusively told Page Six in a statement via CNN, “I spent two years as EP on Chris’ show and I’m proud to have led it to #1 at CNN.
“We ultimately had significant differences, and I asked to leave the show. I have moved on and am looking forward to my latest role with CNN+.”
She was initially moved from Cuomo’s show to be an executive producer for 2020 election coverage, live events and taped special programming, but now works on live morning coverage on CNN+, the new subscription streaming service which launches next year.
The news of Buck’s clashes with Cuomo comes after his former boss at ABC, Shelley Ross, accused him in a scathing New York Times op-ed of sexually harassing her 16 years ago by grabbing her buttocks at a work party in front of her husband and co-workers.
CNN has remained silent over those allegations, and while Cuomo denied that the interaction was “sexual in nature,” he said that he had apologized to Ross.
CNN also stood by Cuomo and even reportedly gave him time off to advise his disgraced brother, former governor Andrew Cuomo, despite claims it was a conflict of interest.
Buck produced Cuomo’s show through the early days of the pandemic when he regularly interviewed his then-governor brother.
She left the show shortly before Cuomo announced he had contracted COVID and retreated to his Hamptons basement — only to flout the rules imposed by his own brother shortly after by going out and about in East Hampton in early April 2020.
Chris Cuomo complained about his job at CNN on SiriusXM in 2020.Getty ImagesThe feisty anchor then got into a fight with a “jackass loser fat-tire biker” who dared to ask why he was breaking quarantine while he was infected and without a face mask.
Cuomo fumed of the incident on Sirius XM, “I want to be able to tell you to go to hell, to shut your mouth.” But he added, “I don’t get that doing what I do for a living.”
Revealing his frustration at work, the Queens-born anchor also trashed his gig at CNN, saying he doesn’t want to spend his time “trafficking in things that I think are ridiculous.”
Such things, he said, included, “talking to Democrats about things that I don’t really believe they mean,” plus “talking to Republicans about them parroting things they feel they have to say.”
He also said he wanted to stop talking about then-President Trump, “who we all know is full of s–t by design.”
He concluded, “I’m basically being perceived as successful in a system that I don’t value … I’m seen as being good at being on TV and advocating for different positions … but I don’t know if I value those things, certainly not as much as I value being able to live my life on my own terms.”
