NEW YORK – CNN fired longtime presenter Don Lemon on Monday, ending his brief and disastrous tenure as a morning show host, just over two months after apologizing on-air for remarks about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being beyond her prime.
The situation swiftly deteriorated. While CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht said they had “parted ways” after Don Lemon co-hosted the show on Monday, Don Lemon described it as a termination and expressed astonishment.
“I would have thought that after 17 years at CNN, someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon stated. CNN reported that Don Lemon was allowed to speak with management but instead issued a statement on Twitter.
CNN provided no public explanation for Lemon’s firing. During a February debate on the ages of politicians on “CNN This Morning” with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, he stated Haley, 51, was not “in her prime.” He defined a woman’s prime as “in her 20s, 30s, and possibly 40s.”
“I think we need to qualify,” Harlow said, trying to clarify what Lemon was referring to. “Are you talking about prime for childbearing or prime for becoming president?”
“Do not shoot the messenger; I am simply stating the facts,” Lemon answered.
The following day, Don Lemon issued a statement apologizing for his “inartful and irrelevant” remarks. He was then gone for three days from the show, returning the following week with a tweeted apology but no mention of the episode on television.
Haley, who had denounced Lemon’s remarks as sexist and leveraged the event to raise funds in February, took to Twitter on Monday to hail Lemon’s dismissal “a beautiful day for women everywhere,” pointing to the beverage sleeves printed with “Past my prime? “Please keep my beer.”
Don Lemon got into an on-air spat with Collins last December, accusing her of trying to interrupt him.
Lemon used to present “Don Lemon Tonight” in prime time, but he moved when the network debuted “CNN This Morning” in November, shortly before the US midterm elections, as one of the network’s first big programming changes under Licht.
He drew criticism last October when he said that the US men’s soccer team should be paid more than the women’s squad because the men were “more interesting to watch.”
Don Lemon got into an on-air spat with Collins last December, accusing her of trying to interrupt him.
Last week, Lemon had a tense on-air interview with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, during which Lemon, who is Black, questioned Ramaswamy’s understanding of racial history.
It is a horrible appearance for a morning news broadcast, where most of the audience is female, and casts strive to portray themselves as a huge happy family. The show has made little advance in ratings on cable news competition compared to the more popular “Fox & Friends” and “Morning Joe.”
The bad vibes were costing CNN advertising sales, and some potential guests were becoming hesitant to appear on “CNN This Morning,” according to a CNN staff official aware of the decision to fire Lemon but not authorized to talk publicly.
Some close to Lemon have stated that the morning job was virtually a demotion for him, with no encouragement to succeed.
Lemon stated that he learned about his dismissal from his agency.
“At no point was I told that I would not be able to continue doing the work I loved at the network,” he claimed.
SOURCE – (AP)
