Chris Cuomo: ‘I Don’t Do Just an Interesting Murder Yarn’

By kevin 

Tonight, ABC News’ “20/20” explores the story of Aaron Vargas who shot and killed another man whom he claims had sexually and psychologically abused him for years. TVNewser caught up with new “20/20” anchor Chris Cuomo to discuss the story and his switch to primetime.

“This is a very interesting look at how the system responds to the notion of who the victim is,” Cuomo tells TVNewser. “It’s a murder, but I don’t do just an interesting murder yarn. It has to be a lens into something else.”

“This is what 20/20 is,” Cuomo says of Friday’s story. “There is a homogeneity to the news magazines,” he explains. Pointing to NBC’s “Dateline,” Cuomo says, “Trials are ready made for television,” but adds, “Those stories, they’re all they are.”

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Cuomo explains that he turns down a lot of stories that don’t have what he sees as an extra relevance and tells us that he likes having more control of the stories that put him on television.

Cuomo moved from the news anchor position on “Good Morning America” to “20/20” and the title of Senior Law and Justice Correspondent at the end of last year. He says he enjoyed his time in the morning, but now enjoys focusing on subjects he has a specific interest in. “You have to do a lot of different things down there without compromise,” he said of “GMA.” “That’s the nature of the beast.”

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