Here today – Don tomorrow.
The moment had all the makings of a television farce. Just as newsrooms around the world were struggling to make sense of the shock ouster of another cable news titan, namely the departure of Tucker Carlson from Fox, Don Lemon took to Twitter Monday to announce his equally sudden dismissal from CNN, where he had worked. for almost 17 years.
“My agent informed me this morning that CNN had fired me. I’m stunned,’ the 57-year-old TV presenter raged in a fiery statement.
Just hours earlier, Lemon, who reportedly made $4 million a year, happily tweeted a clip from that day’s edition of CNN This Morning, which he co-hosted. Little did he know it would be his last.
No one ‘in management’ had the ‘decency’ to tell him directly, he continued. “Clearly there are some bigger issues at stake.”
For its part, CNN responded, criticizing Lemon’s claims as “inaccurate” and saying that he had been “offered the opportunity to meet with management.”
As newsrooms around the world struggled to make sense of yet another shocking departure from cable news, Don Lemon took to Twitter to announce his equally sudden firing from CNN.
But while pundits took to the air to express their deep surprise at Carlson’s departure from Fox News, few voices could be found to say the same about Lemon’s disappearance.
After all, this is long overdue.
In fact, Lemon’s departure comes just weeks after DailyMail.com reported that CNN staffers were growing concerned that Lemon had become “untouchable” and that network bosses were protecting him despite a litany of allegations of cruel misogyny and mistreatment of co-workers that go back decades. .
“Without a doubt, a straight white male would have been fired by now,” an employee said of Lemon, who came out as gay in 2011. “He’s a minority in his race and sexuality…Don seems to be in a protected class.” and he continues to get away with behavior that others would not.’
That protection has now finally ended. However, as CNN’s well-placed pundits reveal exclusively today, Lemon may not have taken the hatchet over what everyone assumes was the final affront to her.
DON BECOMES A ‘WHIRLING DERVISH IN AN UNCONTROLLABLE TAIL TURN’
Early reports pointed to a particularly combative interview last week with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, in which Lemon became visibly frustrated with his guest.
Ramaswamy had recently spoken at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention, where he made the controversial point that southern Democrats, after the Civil War, restricted the gun rights of newly freed blacks and tried to hold them captive.
Lemon’s CNN co-host, Poppy Harlow, initially questioned Ramaswamy. He was palpably uptight on set, but civil.
Only when Lemon intervened did he get ugly.
“When you’re dressed in black and you live in this country, then you can disagree with me,” Lemon snapped at Ramaswany, an Indian-American man, before repeatedly accusing him of lying and failing to provide evidence.
“I think what happened was his head exploded and he was lost,” Ramaswamy told DailyMail.com this week.
Early reports pointed to a particularly combative interview last week with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, in which Lemon became visibly frustrated.
‘My comments baffled him… He became a whirling dervish in an uncontrollable nosedive. He was yelling at the producers into his earpiece.
Since then, many observers have claimed that the unprofessional on-air outburst finally convinced CNN executives that it was time for Lemon to go. But not so, according to CNN pundits who spoke to DailyMail.com.
“Everyone is talking about the way he interacted with Vivek,” a source said. “But the way he spoke to Poppy at the end of that interview, which got lost in the explosiveness, was not lost on Poppy or the executives.”
“You can tell by Poppy’s body language that she was frustrated, and he’ll never learn.”
Watch the interview closely, and you’ll hear Lemon seem to cut his colleague off sharply, as he tries to take things out of the confrontation and wrap up the interview.
“Ok, can we continue now please?” he interrupts, leaning back and buttoning his jacket.
Poppy, apparently exasperated, turns to Lemon.
‘Thank you,’ he says shortly, and continues.
“That’s what he was accused of over and over again,” a CNN source said. ‘That was the pattern: discard, cut, stomp.’
“And while the executives may not have liked the emotional mess of that Vivek interview, what they really don’t want is the continued accusations of sexism and misogyny. Ultimately, I think that was more damaging.
“I think what happened was his head exploded and he was lost,” Ramaswamy told DailyMail.com this week.
When sought by DailyMail.com for a response to these internal allegations, CNN declined to comment.
TROUBLED ANCHOR LEAVES A BITTER TASTE: ‘IT HAS BURNED ALL ITS BRIDGES HERE’
Everyone is celebrating his dismissal. For months people wondered what it would take,” a source said of the mood inside the network now that he’s gone.
‘People are relieved. Now we can all get back to work,” added another. ‘It was a hassle having to interact with Don, his antics were distracting. The feeling was that the network was protecting him at the expense of others. And that made CNN a difficult place to work for a while.
“The tension is now much lower, specifically among the women who felt this was long overdue,” a third source revealed.
Indeed, Lemon’s departure represents a crushing fall from grace for a man who became one of the best-known faces on American television.
Highly ambitious and with an obvious knack for on-screen reporting, Lemon quickly rose through the ranks after joining CNN in 2006, winning a self-titled show eight years later.
From there, his career went from strength to strength, with Lemon embraced in the liberal web as the poster boy for awakening and the authority on racial issues in an increasingly divided America.
Lemon’s departure represents a crushing fall from grace for a man who became one of the best-known faces on American television.
That was until last year, when CNN’s viewership numbers collapsed. Viewerships for March were down 61% and Licht, who took office in May, has moved to steer the struggling network away from stale and partisan political commentary.
As such, Lemon promptly lost his prime-time hosting job, settling instead to join journalists Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins on the new CNN show This Morning.
Negative reports started surfacing almost immediately.
First, in December, we heard that Collins, 30, was rumored to have fled the set in tears after Lemon berated her for interrupting him during a segment.
Then, in February of this year, things escalated even more, as Lemon was accused of flagrant on-screen misogyny.
In a live segment about 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Lemon said: ‘[She] He’s not at his best, sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s, 30s, and maybe 40s.
Harlow, 41, seemed surprised by what she was hearing: “What are you talking about, wait… main for what?”
After an increasingly awkward back and forth, Harlow reportedly left the set “with Collins following her around to try and talk to her”.
The ugly incident took Lemon off the air for three days. But after a brief absence, a “frank and meaningful discussion” with Licht, and an agreement to undertake a single day of training, she returned.
Insiders called the weak punishment a “shit joke.”
Lemon promptly lost his job as a prime-time host, moving instead to join journalists Poppy Harlow (right) and Kaitlin Collins (left) on the new CNN show This Morning.
STORIES OF ALLEGED MISOGICAL ABUSE BY LEMON ‘COME OUT OF THE WOOD’
Then, earlier this month, a blistering takedown emerged in Variety magazine, titled simply: “Don Lemon’s CNN Misogyny, Exposed.”
The article portrayed Lemon as a power-hungry, jealous and brutally competitive colleague, dating back to his early days at CNN Atlanta.
Just two years after joining the network in 2006, Lemon began hosting a weekday show alongside veteran journalist Kyra Phillips.
The pair reportedly disagreed, but things got downright weird after Lemon is said to have launched a secret intimidation campaign against Phillips after she was selected for a terrific job joining US forces in Iraq. .
Lemon “would tear up photos and notes on and in Phillips’s desk” in a cubicle they shared, Variety claimed.
When he returned from Iraq, sources say he also received threatening text messages from an unknown number saying: “Now you’ve crossed the line and you’re going to pay for it.”
The texts were reportedly traced back to Lemon, though he denies the claims.
In a statement at the time, CNN dismissed the Variety article as “patently false” and “unsubstantiated,” a response that experts called “irritating.”
“This year and last year, the women complained to CNN management,” a source told DailyMail.com at the time. “There have been complaints about comments on the air, but also things he said off camera that are demeaning and completely inappropriate in the workplace… I know there are a lot of women who feel ignored and unsupported.”
“After the Nikki Haley episode, a lot more stories came out of the woodwork,” the source added.
In a segment about 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Lemon said: ‘[She] He’s not at his best, sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s, 30s, and maybe 40s.
Things got so bad that some women reportedly refused to appear on TV alongside him.
CNN declined to comment on these new allegations, but now it appears the line has finally changed.
What’s next for Lemon is anyone’s guess. However, in a potential sign that she may now seek a legal battle with CNN, she has reportedly retained prominent Hollywood lawyer Bryan Freedman.
According to the New York Times, Lemon’s contract ran through 2026, meaning he could be entitled to millions.
As for the future of the network, a senior CNN producer said: “No one is concerned that this will hurt ratings…Don will be replaced by someone who treats everyone, especially women, with respect.”
But the question that surely remains is: if the executives finally admit that Lemon was such a big deal, why the hell did it take so long?
