Deep Denial! That was the actual title of Chris Cuomo’s forthcoming book. HarperCollins was set to publish it next year. A NY Times reporter was first to break the news on Twitter that the book has now been scuttled.

Chris Cuomo's forthcoming book (originally titled DEEP DENIAL) from a HarperCollins imprint has been pulled. "We do not intend to publish the Cuomo book," a HarperCollins rep tells me.

— John Koblin (@koblin) December 7, 2021

“Deep Denial” wasn’t about his brother Andrew’s defense against multiple allegations of sexual harassment or about his brother’s cover up of the number of people who died from COVID in New York nursing homes. No, it was a book about Trump.

The book, which had been scheduled to be released next year, was originally titled “Deep Denial.” It had been described by the publisher as “a provocative analysis of the harsh truths that the pandemic and Trump years have exposed about America — about our strength and our character — and a road map of the work needed to make our ideals match reality.”

Authors often get paid an advance up front to write the book. It’s not clear what advance Cuomo received of if he’ll be able to keep that money now that the book has been canceled. In any case, the book cancelation wasn’t the only bad news for Cuomo since his firing. Yesterday he announced he was also giving up his side hustle on Sirius XM radio. Sources told the NY Post he was forced out:

Fired CNN host Chris Cuomo announced Monday that he quit his SiriusXM radio show — with a source saying he was forced out of the side gig after a former female colleague at ABC News accused him of sexual misconduct…

A source familiar with the matter said of Cuomo, “He was asked to resign, which he did.”

Another source said Cuomo — who continued hosting his “Let’s Get After It” radio program after CNN fired him on Tuesday — “really wanted to keep his SiriusXM show.

In addition, CNN announced today that it would not be paying him any severance.

Mr. Zucker also said on Tuesday that CNN did not plan to pay severance to Mr. Cuomo or grant any other compensation remaining on his current contract, according to three people who heard his remarks and requested anonymity to describe internal conversations.

Cuomo doesn’t appear ready to let that go though. He has hired an attorney who previously represented Megyn Kelly when she was fired by NBC.

BREAKING: Chris Cuomo and CNN have lawyered up over his firing, reports @MattBelloni. Cuomo has hired litigator Bryan Freedman, who handled Megyn Kelly’s NBC exit, and CNN is working with WarnerMedia litigator Daniel Petrocelli.

— Puck (@PuckNews) December 7, 2021

So Cuomo has gone from having two jobs making millions of dollars per year plus with a forthcoming book for which he was likely also paid millions to being completely out of work with no severance and no clear prospects.

Will someone at another network snap him up? It’s hard to imagine him going to Fox News under any circumstances, but I could see him going to MSNBC. They might be in the market for a slightly damaged host with a mixed reputation for journalistic ethics. After all, they gave Joy Reid a promotion despite her lying to her own audience about comments she’d made on her old blog. If they could overlook that, they ought to be able to overlook Chris Cuomo working to undermine his brother’s accusers.

And that leaves one big question. Who takes the slot at CNN which Cuomo just vacated? Jake Tapper still makes the most sense though the fact that they haven’t leaked that idea yet makes me wonder if there’s some reason he’s out of the running. Maybe he doesn’t want to work nights? Or maybe it just takes a while to negotiate a new gig like that.