Don Lemon Blames White Men for His CNN Firing in Substack

What was said

"The executive producer who ran The Late Show for years eventually left and somehow landed in my world. That same person from that same TV orbit eventually became my boss at CNN and fired me. It was one of the most spectacular examples of a white man failing up that I have witnessed in this industry. Profoundly unqualified, visibly incompetent, Elevated anyway."

Former CNN host Don Lemon published a Substack blaming his firing on white male executives, specifically Chris Licht who came from Stephen Colbert's show. Kelly countered with data showing Lemon's primetime show averaged just 600,000 viewers compared to her 3 million, and his morning show became CNN's lowest-rated in a decade before offensive comments led to his termination.