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Chris Cuomo, who was bitterly disappointed when he didn’t get the co-host’s job on “Good Morning America,” has emerged as the front-runner in the race to replace Matt Lauer on the “Today” show.
According to several sources, Cuomo stands the best chance in a crowded field of hopefuls to jump in when — and if — Lauer ends up leaving “Today” next year, as reported last week.
The son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo — and younger brother of the current governor, Andrew — was moved off “Good Morning America” in December 2009.
He’d been the news anchor on the show — and frequent fill-in host — for three years and had widely been expected to be named co-host with Robin Roberts when Diane Sawyer left the show to become the anchor of the evening newscast.
But he lost the “GMA” job to George Stephanopoulos — and was moved to a weekly job as host of the primetime magazine “20/20,” a consolation prize of sorts.
He was just as unhappy when ABC hired former MSNBC anchor and lawyer Dan Abrams last February as its new legal reporter.
Cuomo, also a lawyer, had the title of senior legal correspondent for ABC, but the Abrahms’ hiring effectively made that a title in name only.
“He’s ready to leave,” says one insider. “And frankly, he’s probably got as much if not more morning TV experience as anyone available right now.”
It does not appear that any formal approach has been made to Cuomo — as NBC hopes to talk Lauer into staying with “Today” before his contract expires in 20 months.
Often, jobs like the “Today” show host are filled as much by the luck of timing — whose contract is up and who’s free — as by pure merit.
Meredith Vieira, who seemed comfortable and unmovable from her job as co-host of “The View,” was hired as Katie Couric’s replacement mostly because she was the best available person at the time Katie decided to leave, officials said at the time.
Vieira’s replacement this time appears to be a shoo-in, Ann Curry, the show’s longtime news reader.
“She was passed over last time,” said a source. “They can’t do that again.”
The search instead is for Curry’s replacement, a new news reader, who moves into the on-deck circle for the anchoring job.
Two names have emerged as likely candidates in the past week:
* Trish Regan — a CNBC anchor who abruptly left the business network last month after she was pulled from her 11 a.m. anchor job and asked to go back to reporting.
* Kiran Chetry — co-anchor of CNN’s troubled morning show who lost her on-air partner, John Roberts, who moved to Atlanta to start a family. No replacement has been named yet.