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Things are not going well for Don Lemon. During a SiriusXM show on Thursday, Megyn Kelly, along with The Fifth Column podcast, unleashed a wave of criticism at the expense of Lemon’s foray into his new show that was quickly canned by X, formerly Twitter.
The segment delved into a range of issues, from Lemon’s interviewing skills, his understanding of free speech, to his extraordinary demands for Elon Musk. Kelly said Lemon’s reported laundry list of demands from Musk included a Tesla Cybertruck, a trip on a SpaceX rocket, and a significant say in Musk’s future media talent deals.
“He wanted half the company, he wanted to do podcasts in space,” the hosts joked. “As somebody who actually has negotiated several contracts in cable news and broadcast news… that’s exactly the opposite of what you do,” Kelly explained.
“You make a demand that is reasonable, that is big… but you don’t want to make yourself look like an asshole, right?” Kelly remarked.
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Lemon’s ambitious move to X faced significant setbacks. The launch of “The Don Lemon Show” was marred by a conspicuous decline in viewer interest, particularly after his exclusive interview with Musk.
The show’s premiere episode initially garnered 2 million impressions, which was a promising start for the former CNN host. However, following episodes failed to gain momentum with viewership plummeting to less than 70,000 impressions, signaling insurmountable challenges for the show’s future.
The dramatic drop in ratings sparked a contentious narrative, with Lemon suggesting that Musk’s discomfort during their interview was influenced by Lemon’s identity as a black gay man.
“Some people took it to mean a racial thing. I meant someone who has a different worldview,” said Lemon. “But, since people raised it and you said what you said, do you think that he was uncomfortable? I didn’t want to go there. Do you think he was uncomfortable sitting in front of a gay black guy?”
Kelly and the podcast hosts didn’t hold back on their critique of Lemon’s understanding of free speech, particularly in relation to his comments on Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro. They highlighted Lemon’s criticism of others as free speech frauds while mocking his own challenges in navigating the complexities of the spotlight on social media.
“You’re off on a new foot with your employer,” Kelly continued on Lemon. “You don’t want to make yourself look like an asshole. Nobody in history has asked to be the first person in space and for full editorial control over any news decisions made.”
Throughout the discussion, the underlying theme was Lemon’s struggle to transition from a mainstream cable news environment, where he had a significant support system, to the more solitary and direct engagement required on new platforms like X. His inability to adapt, combined with his overreaching demands, formed the crux of the criticism leveled against him by Kelly and others.
