Don Lemon Received Surprising Job Offer After CNN Fired Him

By Michael Hein

Don Lemon got the boot from his CNN gig, but he has a unconventional job offer to fall back on. As soon as news broke of Lemon's firing, rapper Rick Ross quickly offered the former anchor a job at one of his WingStop restaurants Ross was obviously making a joke for his Instagram followers, though it was a bit hard to tell if he was mocking Lemon, CNN, or both.

Lemon made a post on Twitter last month saying that he had been fired from CNN with little warning or explanation, sparking a wave of speculation about what was going on behind the scenes at the network. Ross responded shortly after with his first post on Instagram, saying: "Damn, Don. But guess what? A brother's got your back. We hiring at WingStop, and for some reason, I believe you know what you doing with the lemon pepper wings. So man, just send over your résumé. I'm gonna make sure I get you in front of the right grill, brother. Stay solid, brother."

Ross kept coming back to Lemon's predicament in subsequent videos. In the next one, he said: "Just came up with a wonderful idea – well, really, Don, you helped me come up with this. I need to hit the team over at Rapstar Energy Drink and let 'em know we should introduce the Don Lemon flavor. What y'all think? Aye, Don, we got you brother!"

In another video, Ross broadened his offer a bit while asking for a response even more urgently. He said: "Right now I got an APB out on Don Lemon... Don Lemon, I know you want to talk to the people – talk to the streets – and let us know what's really going on. Since everybody getting fired, I'm considering, at exclusive locations, firing the pepper on the wing, and just make it the 'Don Lemon wing.' I need a worldwide response for this. Let us know what's going on, Don. I got a huge platform coming up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you could come sit down with the boss."

Ross bought into the WingStop fast-casual chain in 2017 and now owns several locations around the U.S. It's hard to say how he connected that venture to Lemon aside from the word association between Lemon's name and the lemon-pepper wings. Commenters were clearly amused by the idea of Lemon collaborating with Ross in any way.

Lemon announced his own termination from CNN, and the network confirmed it in a statement a few minutes later. The network disputed Lemon's claim that he was fired without warning or explanation, although it did not publicly explain why he was let go. Lemon had hosted the primetime evening news for many years, but last fall he moved to the newly rebranded morning show CNN This Morning. Lemon has not commented on Ross' offer or what might be next for him.

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