In 2021, Don Lemon’s star was so high in the cable news stratosphere, the network changed the name of the show from “CNN Tonight” to “Don Lemon Tonight.” But the following year, his cherished prime-time show disappeared. How and why that happened could be summed up in a series of circumstances beyond Lemon’s control, although his on-air behavior could have been a factor as well.
CNN’s numbers during the Trump years were impressive, getting as high as 2.2 million in January 2022, during the former President’s final month in office. But by the time Joe Biden was sworn in as the next Commander-in-Chief, those figures plummeted to roughly one million viewers. In February, Lemon lost his most powerful CNN ally, company CEO Jeff Zucker, who resigned after confessing to a frowned-upon romance with a colleague. Zucker’s successor Chris Licht subsequently gutted staff and unplugged HLN and streaming service CNN+.
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Lemon’s shenanigans didn’t help, such as the time he was labeled a misogynist when he took CNN correspondent S.E. Cupp to task for a momentary lapse. “Is it mommy brain?” he scolded. “No, I just forgot what I was going to say,” she tersely replied. After CNN axed his show, Lemon was shuffled to co-host a new morning show with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow. “Set your alarms, folks, because we’re going to have a lot of fun,” Lemon said in a statement. Those alarms would be ringing, all right — but for entirely different reasons.
