Female viewership of Chris Cuomo's primetime CNN show takes a nose-dive - even before brother's resignation over sex-pest scandal

Chris Cuomo's viewership numbers are tanking in a key female demographic - and that was before his disgraced brother resigned as governor of New York. 

Cuomo Prime Time averaged just 76,000 women in the sought-after 25-to-54 demo from Tuesday to Friday of last week, down from a second-quarter average of 128,000, according to Nielsen ratings.

The ratings drop coincides with the bombshell report released by New York  Attorney General Letitia James on Aug. 3 detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Governor Andrew Cuomo, the host's brother.

Cuomo Prime Time didn't fare much better in total female viewership. The show dropped 21 percent from an average of 570,000 in the second quarter to 453,000 in the four-day period after the attorney general's revelations. 

James' office found that the governor engaged in a pattern of 'unwelcome and unwanted touching' and 'offensive and sexually suggestive comments.'

The high-profile anchor was panned for not reporting James' findings on his show that night and kept mum the rest of the week. He was away on vacation this week when the three-term governor announced his resignation. 

The CNN host had the governor on his show numerous times last year, engaging in fawning banter on-air as his older brother was hailed for his response to the pandemic.

Cuomo Prime Time was bleeding female viewers in the days after NY AG Letitia James' report finding that the host's brother, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, sexually harassed 11 women

Host Andrew Cuomo, pictured above at the Sag Harbor Yacht Yard in Long Island, has been off the air for his birthday week since Friday

The network eventually banned the host from having the governor on after his administration was accused of covering up nursing home deaths in New York. 

On Tuesday, CNN media reporter Brian Stelter told The Late Show's Stephen Colbert that 'some people' at the network are mad at the Prime Time Cuomo host for trying to help his brother beat the harassment allegations. 

The CNN host took a week off from his show starting Friday, telling a podcast he takes his 'birthday week off' every year.

Cuomo did take his birthday week off in 2020 and 2019, but he didn't do so in 2018, and he was only off for one day in 2017, according to The Wrap.

The vacation announcement raised eyebrows as it came amid mounting pressure for him to address his brother's sex scandal on his popular show, which he has yet to do.

Gov. Cuomo announced Tuesday he would leave, paving the way for Kathy Hochul, 62, to become New York's first female governor on August 24.

He cited his grim outlook to refute the sexual harassment allegations as calls mounted for his resignation, including from President Joe Biden.  

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned Tuesday, saying the 'political wind' was not in his favor

The governor was hailed as a pandemic hero for his daily COVID briefings last year, before he was enmeshed in sexual harassment and nursing home death cover-up scandals

'This situation, by its current trajectory, will generate months of political and legal controversy. That is what is going to happen. That is how the political wind is blowing,' Cuomo said.

'It will consume government, cost taxpayers millions of dollars, it will brutalize people.'

In an interview with CBS News and the Albany Times-Union aired Monday, Cuomo's former assistant Brittany Commisso said she filed a criminal complaint against the governor with the Albany sheriff's office because it was the 'right thing to do.'

Commisso is referred to as 'Executive Assistant One' in James' report. 

She recalled a time she had to go to the governor's mansion to help him with a speech.

'While I was there, the governor said, "why don't you take a selfie?" I then felt, while taking the selfie, his hand go down my back onto my butt. He started rubbing it - not sliding it, not quickly brushing over it, rubbing my butt.'

She said she came forward in March after hearing him deny other women's allegations at one of his press conferences.

'That was the tipping point. I broke down. I felt like he was personally saying it to me.

'He thinks that he is untouchable... people don't understand. He is a professional fighter.'