Anderson Cooper surprised fans as he and close friend Andy Cohen rode together on a New York City subway.
Cohen shared a selfie of their trip and poked fun at Cooper’s scowl as he was ‘not having it on the A train tonight’, with many stunned by the cost-cutting transport given Cooper’s reported $20 million salary at CNN.
‘Like you weren’t attracting enough attention? You had to take out the camera and take a selfie!’ Cooper responded.
While one observer said Cooper appeared ‘angry’ during his rare foray into public, others were jealous of the Big Apple residents who found themselves in their presence.
‘I would die if I was on the train and you both hopped on,’ a fan said.
New York City official Merry Rutrick also ran into the pair on the subway and shared a selfie with the duo, with Cooper appearing in better spirits in her snap.
It comes after it was revealed CNN executives are planning to axe some of their highest paid staff and cut back on big budget shows.
The layoffs and cutbacks at CNN, first reported by Puck News, come as network executives are reportedly scrambling to rescue their traffic after dismal election ratings.
Longtime anchor Chris Wallace has already departed, and senior stars including Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper have both reportedly been denied raises on their multi-million-dollar salaries.
While there is no mention of who may be on the chopping block, Cooper may be sweating as he boasts one of the highest salaries at the network at a reported $20 million-a-year.
According to Puck, CNN will implement a fresh round of layoffs within the next few months ‘that will impact hundreds of employees across the organization.’
Due to poor ratings, insiders said the cutbacks will be more geared toward the production side of things.
This will mean reporters and correspondents will be forced to pick up the slack, and will be expected to ‘assume more of the responsibilities once handled by teams of producers and production assistants.’
Sources who spoke to reporter Dylan Byers, who worked at CNN for three years before founding Puck, added how the looming layoffs are part of an overarching plan – one that puts a premium on the station’s digital platforms.
The man behind it, they said, is none other than new CEO Mark Thompson – the former New York Times boss brought in to overhaul the network under its Warner Bros. Discovery parent.
The old BBC boss filled the position left by then-languishing leader Chris Licht this past August, and since then, ratings have fallen more than 20 percent.
Under Licht – a tenure that lasted a little over a year – the station fell from being the most-watched cable news network on election nights, to one of the least.
In 2016, when it was headed by since-ousted leader Jeff Zucker, it was the most watched network overall – a distinction that’s now held by Fox News.
At the time, CNN had averaged 13.3million viewers in primetime. Today, it’s only around 800,000.