Don Lemon: Here’s the Truth About CNN and Me

Don Lemon isn’t holding back about his split from CNN—and his disdain for the constraints of traditional media. During a conversation with Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee on this week’s episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, the former primetime anchor said he’s found freedom—and a bigger audience—in going solo. “They don’t like us big mouth, sort of middle or left-leaning people,” Lemon said of big TV networks and their executives. “They just find ways to get rid of us for little things.”

(They just sweep us away. It’s relaxing for them,“ added Bee, whose show Full Frontal navigated the response to similarly unfiltered commentary.)

After being moved from his long-time perch at Don Lemon Tonight to the network’s “reimagined” morning show in 2022, Lemon was fired from CNN less than a year later. He claimed he was blindsided despite CNN calling the decision mutual.

CNN today, meanwhile, is facing a ratings crisis and perennial rumors of layoffs and corporate reorgs, the latest involving a large-scale shuffle of its linear schedule—and anchors.

Lemon’s only regret about his post-CNN career, he said, was blowing cash on a swanky Midtown Manhattan studio for his live streams. “Had I known what I know now, I wouldn’t have spent so much on a fancy studio,” he admitted. (Another misstep, perhaps, was his botched deal with Elon Musk, which saw Musk cancel The Don Lemon Show on X before its debut episode—featuring Musk himself as the hostile guest; Lemon is now suing Musk and X for fraud and breach of contract.)

Turns out, his subscribers today—known as “Lemon Heads”—prefer him at home: “My subscribers say, ‘We don’t want cable news,” Lemon said. “‘We want to see you in your living room with your husband and dogs doing karaoke on Sundays in front of a fireplace.’”

Lemon’s YouTube shows Live at Five and Hot Topics at 10 (a tribute to Wendy Williams’ famed segment) consist of just that: Don at home or in a hotel room, announcing breaking news stories, interviewing guests and offering unvarnished opinions. With fewer constraints and more creative freedom, and as younger audiences flock to social media for their news, Lemon said he has embraced the shift. “They don’t even know how to turn on cable news,” he said. “Now they call me the ‘TikTok guy.’”

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