Cuomo Just Lost His Emmy

Award granted for COVID briefings was rescinded hours after he left office
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 24, 2021 6:38 PM CDT
Cuomo Just Lost His Emmy
Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a Zoom-cast news briefing, Saturday Aug. 21, 2021, in New York.   (NY Governor's Press Office via AP)

Andrew Cuomo is now an ex-governor—and an ex-Emmy winner. The former New York governor, who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, has been stripped of the award he was granted last year, reports Politico. The move was announced by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences hours after Cuomo was replaced by Gov. Kathy Hochul at the stroke of midnight Tuesday. The academy gave Cuomo an International Emmy Founders Award last fall for his "masterful use of television to inform and calm people" during COVID briefings.

The academy, one of three organizations that hands out Emmys, said it was rescinding the award based on a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James that found the Democratic governor had sexually harassed multiple women and broke state and federal laws, Deadline reports. "His name and any reference to his receiving the award will be eliminated from International Academy materials going forward," the academy said in a statement.

When the award was granted, the academy praised Cuomo for his briefings during the early months of the pandemic, Variety reports. His briefings "worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure," said International Academy president Bruce L. Paisner. "People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on." (In his final hours in office, Cuomo granted clemency to the getaway driver in an infamous 1981 robbery.)

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