Don Lemon Makes Big Claims About Elon Musk and X After Interviewing Him for New Show
It turns out 'The Don Lemon Show' won't be premiering on X after all.
Don Lemon and Elon Musk's business relationship is over. According to the former CNN staple, he claimed in a social media statement that Musk has canceled a partnership where Lemon was scheduled to host a new show on X, the social media platform Musk owns, which was previously Twitter. Lemon said he was informed of the decision to cancel the deal just hours after he taped an interview with Musk for the show's premiere, which was scheduled to air on March 18.
"We had a good conversation. Clearly he felt differently," Lemon wrote. "His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me. There were no restrictions on the interview that he willingly agreed to, and my questions were respectful and wide-ranging, covering everything from SpaceX to the presidential election."
Musk has his own explanation. In the statement that he posted on X hours after Lemon, he said that "instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity. All this said, Lemon/Zucker are of course welcome to build their viewership on this platform along with everyone else." Zucker is the former president of CNN. Lemon was ousted last year and reportedly was paid his entire remaining contract salary of $24.5 million.
Despite the controversy, Lemon says he's airing the interview on his new show regardless, which will be shared on YouTube and other platforms. He also still expects to be paid by X for his work thus far, according to Allison Gollust, a spokesperson for the former cable news anchor and the former chief marketing officer at CNN.
"The Don Lemon Show is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities," the corporate account for X said in a statement on the site. "However, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show."