Don Lemon[2] (born March 1, 1966) is an American television journalist best known for being a host on
CNN from 2014 until 2023. He anchored weekend news programs on local television stations in Alabama and Pennsylvania during his early days as a journalist.[3] Lemon worked as a news correspondent for
NBC on its programming, such as Today and NBC Nightly News. Lemon is also a recipient of an
Edward R. Murrow Award in 2002 for his coverage of the capture of the
Washington, D.C. snipers. He also received three regional
Emmy Awards for his special report on real estate in Chicago and a business feature on
craigslist.[4]
He joined CNN in 2006, also as a correspondent and later achieved prominence as the presenter of Don Lemon Tonight from 2014 to 2022. He most recently served as a co-host of CNN This Morning, alongside
Kaitlan Collins and
Poppy Harlow. After several on-air controversies and reports of alleged decades-long instances of
misogyny he was fired from CNN in April 2023.[5]
Early life and education
Lemon was born March 1, 1966, in
Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, the son of Katherine Marie (Bouligney) and Wilmon Lee Richardson.[6][7] His father was a prominent attorney, who was part of a lawsuit successfully challenging segregation of public transportation in Baton Rouge.[8] Lemon was born under the surname of his mother's then-husband, and discovered that Richardson was his father when he was five. He is of mostly African-American ancestry, along with
Creole; his maternal grandmother was the daughter of a black mother and a white father, who had French and Scots-Irish ancestry.[8][9] Lemon stated he was
sexually abused as a child.[10] He attended
Baker High School, a public high school in the town of
Baker in
East Baton Rouge Parish. He was voted class president during his senior year.[11]
Lemon joined
CNN in September 2006.[14] He has been outspoken in his work at CNN, criticizing the state of cable news and questioning the network publicly.[16] He has also voiced strong opinions on ways that the African American community can improve their lives, which has caused some controversy.[17]
In 2014, CNN began to pilot prime time shows hosted by Lemon, including The Eleventh Hour and The Don Lemon Show. Following the disappearance of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Lemon began to host a special, nightly program featuring discussion and analysis of the event by aviation experts.[18] After a realignment of CNN's schedule following the cancellation of Piers Morgan Live, this hour was replaced by the news program CNN Tonight; Lemon would later become the permanent host of the hour as CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.[19] Lemon has also participated in CNN's New Year's Eve Live as a correspondent from a city in the
Central Time Zone, most often alongside fellow CNN anchor
Brooke Baldwin.[20][21][22]
In May 2021, it was announced that Lemon, along with fellow CNN journalist
Chris Cuomo, would launch a podcast named The Handoff centering around "politics and personal".[23] On May 17, CNN Tonight with Don Lemon was retitled to simply Don Lemon Tonight; Lemon apologized for how he teased the rebranding on his show, stating that he "didn't mean to set the internet on fire"—in reference to viewers who thought that Lemon would be departing CNN.[24][25]
In February 2022, CNN announced Lemon would be hosting a talk show for CNN's then-forthcoming streaming service
CNN+ called The Don Lemon Show.[26] Two episodes were released in the service's sole month of operation in April 2022.[27]
On September 15, 2022, it was announced that Lemon would co-anchor a new CNN morning show with
Kaitlan Collins and
Poppy Harlow later in the year.[28] On October 12, 2022, it was announced that the morning show would be named CNN This Morning.[29] Lemon's tenure on the show ended with his April 2023 firing.[5][30]
Political commentary
Lemon's outspoken criticism of
Donald Trump made him a target of the president.[31] In January 2018, after Trump controversially referred to countries such as
El Salvador,
Haiti, and
Honduras as
"shitholes" during a meeting on immigration, Lemon opened CNN Tonight with a proclamation that "The president of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that."[32] In March 2016, Lemon was interviewing
Omarosa Newman and
Kellyanne Conway about the Republican presidential primary. Lemon cut to a commercial break after calling for Newman's microphone to be turned off because she did not want to begin the interview with his original question about a tweet comparing the physical appearances of Trump's wife and US Senator
Ted Cruz's wife, which Trump had retweeted.[33]
In October 2018, during a discussion with
Chris Cuomo on Cuomo Prime Time amid the
Jeffersontown shooting, Lemon argued that Americans should not "demonize any one group or any one ethnicity", and that
domestic terrorism by
white supremacist Americans, "most of them
radicalized to
the right", were a bigger threat to the safety of the country than foreigners. He went on to ask, "there is no travel ban on [white people], they have the
Muslim ban, there is no white guy ban, so what do we do about that?" Lemon's remarks were criticized by conservative figures, who felt that it was "race baiting" and contradicted his suggestion that Americans should not "demonize any one group or any one ethnicity." In response to the criticism, Lemon cited data from a report by the
Government Accountability Office stating that there had been 255 fatalities between September 12, 2001, and December 31, 2016, involving domestic extremists, and that killings by far-right extremists outranked those by Islamic extremists in 10 of the 15 years tracked. In the same period, no deaths were credited to attacks by far-left extremists.[34][35][36]
Involvement in Jussie Smollett case
Lemon faced accusations of unethical journalism during the trial of the
Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax case. It was revealed during court testimony that Lemon had sent Smollett messages informing him that the
Chicago Police Department did not believe his account of what had happened on the night in question. Lemon who covered the trial on his
CNN show Don Lemon Tonight did not disclose his involvement or his interactions with Smollett.[37][38]
Allegations of misogyny
In December 2022, Lemon was involved in an onscreen argument with co-anchors Collins and Harlow over the pay inequity in women's sports. Lemon argued that "people are more interested in the men". In defending his stance, he stated that he could not be sexist because he had grown up as the only male in a family of all women.[39]
On February 19, 2023, after
Nikki Haley called for "mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old"; Lemon said "this whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable, I think it is the wrong road to go down", before continuing "She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s". His remarks were criticized online as sexist; Lemon later apologized,[40][41] and did not appear on CNN This Morning on February 20;[42] he returned on February 22.[43]
In April 2023, Variety published a report alleging that Lemon had a history of misogynistic behavior towards his colleagues, including
Soledad O'Brien,
Kyra Phillips and
Nancy Grace, dating back to 2008. This reportedly included questioning whether O'Brien was black, threatening Phillips, and mocking Grace.[44][45] A spokesperson for Lemon denied the allegations, saying, "The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is entirely based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip."[46][47]
Firing from CNN
On April 24, 2023, Lemon was fired by CNN; his contract would have expired in 2026.[48] According to The New York Times, CNN had experienced difficulty in booking guests willing to appear on-air with Lemon, and polls had shown his popularity among viewers had declined.[48] Lemon said that the firing came as a surprise, and that the network had failed to inform him in person, which CNN denied.[49] This coincidentally occurred on the same day that
Tucker Carlson was fired by
Fox News.[5][30]
The Don Lemon Show (2024)
On January 9, 2024, Lemon announced plans for a new show on Twitter, The Don Lemon Show.[50] Platform owner
Elon Musk was announced as its inaugural guest. On March 13, 2024, however, Lemon revealed that Twitter had dropped the show and that it would instead be hosted on YouTube; the next day, Lemon made an appearance on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront (his first appearance on the network since the firing) to discuss the show, stating that Musk had dropped him shortly after the interview was recorded.[51][52][53]
Lemon was voted as one of the 150 most influential African Americans by Ebony magazine in 2009.[57] In 2014, The Advocate listed Lemon as one of the publication's 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media.[58]
In December 2016, Lemon was honored with a Native Son Award, named after
James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son (1955), recognizing and to "encourage the increased visibility and impact of black
gay men in society".[59] In 2017, Out named him on its Power 50 list of "the most influential LGBTQ people in the USA."[60]
During an on-air interview with members of Bishop
Eddie Long's congregation in September 2010, Lemon discussed being sexually molested when he was five or six by a neighbor teenage boy, and that it was not until he was thirty that he told his mother about it.[64][11]
In his 2011 memoir, Transparent, Lemon publicly came out as gay—having been out in his personal life and with close colleagues—becoming "one of the few openly gay black men in broadcasting".[55][65][66] He also discussed
colorism in the black community and the sexual abuse he suffered as a child.[10] He dedicated the book to
Tyler Clementi, a college student who
killed himself after his roommate
outed him online. Lemon also stated that he has known about his sexuality since the age of five or six.[67]
In October 2017, he received death threats laced with racial slurs; he filed a police report detailing the incident.[68]
On January 31, 2018, Lemon's sister, L'Tanya "Leisa" Lemon Grimes, died at the age of 58; police concluded that her death was an accidental drowning in a pond while fishing.[69] After being absent for approximately a week, he opened his show on February 6 by thanking everyone who wished him "prayers and words of encouragement".[70]
Lemon met real estate agent Tim Malone in 2017, after which the two began dating.[71] The couple announced in April 2019 that they were engaged to be married.[72]
^For Outstanding Achievement within a Regularly Scheduled News Program – Specialty Report: Business/Consumer.
^For Outstanding Achievement within a Regularly Scheduled News Program – Soft News Feature Series and Outstanding Achievement for Alternate Media/New Media Interactivity.
^Don Lemon, "...the internet has my name wrong...", "...my middle name is not Carlton...", "my name is not Donald—just Don", Don Lemon Tonight, December 1, 2021
^
abc"Don Lemon". CNN.
Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
^
abVirchow, Krause & Company, LLP (November 19, 2006).
"2005-2006 Emmy Recipients"(PDF). Chicago/Midwest Chapter National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Archived(PDF) from the original on October 20, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2019.{{
cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)