CNN fired longtime host Don Lemon about two months after he said some controversial things on-air about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
In a letter to staff, CNN Chair and CEO Chris Licht told them about the decision. He thanked Lemon for his work over the past 17 years and wished him luck in the future.
But CNN did not say anything to the world about why Lemon left. Lemon said on his Twitter account that he was fired and that he was surprised by the news. He had been on “CNN This Morning,” his show, that morning.
Video of Don Lemon talking about Nikki Haley and her age goes viral
CNN: Don Lemon – Nikki Haley pic.twitter.com/xqkF5fRCL1
— Pastor A.B. Harris (@pastorabharris) April 24, 2023
“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned,” he wrote in a statement posted shortly after 12 p.m. Eastern. “After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network.”
About 45 minutes later, CNN said on its PR account that Don Lemon’s comment about what happened this morning was wrong. He was given the chance to meet with management, but he chose to put out a message on Twitter instead.
The offensive things Don Lemon said about Nikki Haley keep coming up.
Lemon was fired on the same day that Fox News revealed that its most popular host, conservative Tucker Carlson, was being fired without warning.
In mid-February, Lemon caused an uproar when, during a discussion on “CNN This Morning” with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins about the ages of politicians, he said that the 51-year-old Haley was not “in her prime.” A woman, he said, was considered in her prime “in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”
Harlow asked Lemon to explain what he was talking about, and he said, “I think we need to qualify. Are you talking about prime for childbearing or are you talking about prime for being president?”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Lemon said. “I’m just telling you the facts.” He brought it up again an hour later, and analyst Audie Cornish told him he was wrong.
Lemon said in a statement the same day that he was sorry for his “inartful and irrelevant” remarks. After that, he didn’t appear on the show for three days. The next week, he tweeted an apology but didn’t talk about the event on air.
Don Lemon says sorry for his heated remarks and goes to formal training
In a letter at the time, Licht told staff that Lemon would get “formal training,” but he didn’t say what that would mean. Licht also said that it was important to him that the network “balances accountability with… creating a culture where people can own their mistakes, learn from them, and grow from them.”
Lemon used to host “Don Lemon Tonight” in the evenings, but he went to the mornings when CNN started “CNN This Morning” last November, just before the U.S. midterm elections. This was one of Licht’s first big changes to the network’s programming. But the show hasn’t had the effect on numbers that CNN hoped for, and last month, when ratings across the board were going down, CNN’s leaders asked people to be patient.
Nikki Haley talks about Don Lemon leaving CNN.
Haley had called Lemon’s comments racist and used the situation to raise money in February. On Monday, she took to Twitter to call Lemon’s firing ‘a great day for women everywhere’, linking to the drink sleeves that say ‘Past my prime?’ Hold my beer.”
Lemon’s departure has made people wonder how CNN and other news networks handle controversial comments made by their hosts and if the results are fair and consistent. We don’t know what will happen to the popular news anchor in the future or if he will come back on another network or website.
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