Don Lemon's New Show Unveiled Nearly One Year After CNN Ousting
US journalist Don Lemon arrives for the Time 100 Gala, celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world, at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City on April 26, 2023. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Former CNN host Don Lemon is gearing up to launch a new show covering the political and cultural news of the day.
Lemon, who hosted Don Lemon Tonight on CNN for several years before the media company ousted him last year, identified The Don Lemon Show as the first undertaking of his new media company. The show will launch in collaboration with X, formerly Twitter.
“I’ve heard you… and today I am back bigger, bolder, freer!” Lemon said in a statement shared on X. The show “will be available to everyone, easily, whenever and wherever you want it, streaming on the platforms where conversations are happening.” Lemon went on to refer to X as “the biggest space for free speech in the world.”
“I know now more than ever that we need a place for honest debate and discussion without hall monitors,” he said. “This is just the beginning so stay tuned.”
X announced that 30-minute episodes of The Don Lemon Show will stream on the platform three times a week. Details regarding the show’s launch date were not immediately available, but the platform said episodes will at first "run exclusively” on X.
Lemon’s new show is one of three X teased on Tuesday. The other new shows will be hosted by former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and sports radio host Jim Rome.
CNN announced Lemon’s departure from the company last April. Two months earlier, Lemon came under fire for comments he made about women while discussing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Lemon, who was at the time a co-host of CNN This Morning, told CNN’s Poppy Harlow that women were “considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.” It was later reported by Variety that Lemon had a “troubling” history when it came to his treatment of women, which Lemon has denied.
A few months after leaving CNN, Lemon said he didn’t want to “keep preaching to the choir” and would instead seek ways to expand his audience.
With his new show, Lemon is following in the footsteps of Tucker Carlson, who similarly launched a show of his own on X after his ouster from Fox News last spring. Carlson congratulated Lemon on his announcement in a Tuesday tweet.
“It’s a new world,” Carlson tweeted. “Welcome.”
