NewsNation announces key ‘Cuomo’ staffers

By Michael P. Hill Article may include affiliate links

NewsNation has completed hiring key personnel for its new upcoming primetime program hosted by former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

The primetime news program, hosted by multi award-winning broadcast anchor and attorney Cuomo, will debut Monday, Oct. 3, 2022 and air weeknights at 8 p.m. eastern.

Alexandra “Dusty” Cohen has been named executive producer of “Cuomo,” which will be produced live at Nexstar’s midtown Manhattan production studios.

“Dusty is an absolute dynamo who has assembled an editorial staff with the experience, drive and grit to make big things happen,” said Cuomo. “I am so grateful this talented group of industry veterans and visionaries is joining me on this exciting new venture with NewsNation.”

“I have known Chris Cuomo for nearly 30 years, and he is hands down the best interviewer of our generation,” said Cohen, who spent nearly two decades at “The View,” where she worked closely with Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie as part of the original production team behind the show’s success. “I am grateful to NewsNation for this incredible opportunity and am blown away by the number of news and talk industry heavyweights who have joined our team. We have hit the ground running,” she said in a statement.

Notable “Cuomo” senior production hires include:

• Senior Supervising Producer Jonathan Faulhaber, a multi-Emmy nominated talk show and field producer who has held senior roles for NBC Universal (“Today” and “The Meredith Vieira Show”), DebMar Mercury, Discovery, ABC News and “The View.”
• Director Renee Cullen, an award-winning news director who most recently served as creative director for CBS News and previously as senior coordinating director for CNN.
• Senior Broadcast Producer Ron Messer, an award-winning producer who most recently served as a senior producer at CNN+. He has extensive experience in news, documentaries, and special programming for various media outlets, including Al Jazeera America, Fox’s conservative commentary channel,, Viceland, OWN, Discovery, and People TV among others.
• Head Booking Producer Hillary Kun, a Primetime Emmy Award-winning former co-executive producer for “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” She most recently served as a talent executive at CNN+ and has also held booking and producing roles at The Atlantic, “GMA 3” and NBCUniversal.
• Talent Producer Brad LaRosa, a veteran talent executive who served as supervising producer for “The Barbara Walters Specials.” He has also served as a talent booker for ABC News, SiriusXM and 20th Century Fox, among others.

“Cuomo” will replace “NewsNation Prime,” the last remaining hour of the original concept behind NewsNation — a live, three-hour primetime newscast culling content from Nexstar Media Group stations across the country.

Nexstar acquired WGN America as part of its purchase of Tribune-owned TV stations in 2019 and eventually rebranded the entire channel under the NewsNation name while steadily increasing original news, interview and analysis programming amidst its schedule that consists largely of syndicated repeats of network shows.

Cuomo was fired from CNN in December 2021 after an internal investigation revealed that he allegedly advised his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on issues surrounding sexual misconduct accusations. Andrew Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.

He had been anchoring “Cuomo Prime Time,” having originally joined the network as co-anchor of “New Day.” Before that, he worked at ABC News.