CNN morning show host Don Lemon has been warned that his time at the network could end if there is one more incident related to his attitude.
Lemon was yanked out of his solo evening time slot and moved to “CNN This Morning” with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. Tensions on the set have been building since December, when Lemon exploded at his co-hosts.
More recently, Lemon enraged his co-hosts and no small amount of women by saying GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, was “past her prime” because she was 51.
“She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry,” Lemon said. “When a woman is considered to be in her prime — in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s. That’s not according to me. If you Google ‘when is a woman in her prime,’ it’ll say 20s, 30s and 40s. I’m not saying I agree with it.”
That earned him a time out from CNN and a warning, according to TMZ.
TMZ’s report said that when Lemon met with “upper management,” “he was told this was his final warning on such antics.”
TMZ reported that the warning was simple: “the next time he insults his cohosts or creates a toxic environment (on or off-air) will be his last with the network.”
Lemon’s future could also be tied to the show’s ratings, which one source said rose when Lemon was absent,
“Following the backlash from his remarks on presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s age, Lemon’s two-day absence from the studio actually appears to have boosted the network’s average ratings,” Dallas Lawrence, a senior vice president at Samba TV, said, according to the New York Post.
“Average viewership the two days following his comments was up 5% compared to the average daily viewership the week before,” Lawrence said. “In fact, two out of the three most-watched days in the past eight analyzed were the days in which Lemon was absent.”
Samba’s numbers show viewership was 617,000 households on the first day without Lemon and then 678,000 the next day the show aired, before hitting 709,000 households on Tuesday, the day before Leon returned.
Nielsen’s numbers show the opposite – that the show’s ratings dipped when Lemon was absent.
What is, who lost the week, Ken? pic.twitter.com/7U2qhhTf2g
— CHUNTERKAP (@chunterkap) February 24, 2023
Lemon’s slap on the wrist became fodder for humor from radio host Howard Stern, according to the Daily Mail.
“They suspended him for a day, and they sent him right into sensitivity training. And then he came back the next day. He was all cured. I said: “That’s fantastic! They must have an expert over there,’” Stern said.
“I’ve been in therapy 30 years, I think, and I’m still not cured, I’m just saying, I would like to interview the person who does the training because this person’s a genius,” he said.
“And, if I could be fixed in a day by this person…I want this person in my life and so does everybody else,’ he said.
