*Don Lemon’s time with CNN has officially ended, with the former primetime anchor netting a hefty sum for his trouble
According to The Wrap, Lemon agreed to a separation deal with CNN for approximately $24.5 million. The amount is the full pay from Lemon’s final contract with the network, which extended 3.5 years from his departure.
CNN’s payment to Lemon marks the conclusion of a saga that began 10 months ago, when he made controversial remarks about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley during an episode of “CNN This Morning.” Speaking with his female co-hosts, Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow, Lemon implied the 51-year-old former South Carolina governor was past her prime.
“Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry,” an “uncomfortable” Lemon explained while discussing Haley’s age. “When a woman is considered to be in her prime — in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”
The comment resulted in Lemon’s dismissal from CNN after the show. A move the 57-year-old described as a termination. “It is clear that there are some larger issues at play,” Lemon wrote on social media.
Digging further into the issue, Lemon stated he was “stunned” by the news of his firing, which he received via his agent. “I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” the 57-year-old newsman voiced.
While chatting with Kara Swisher, Lemon shined an unflattering light on CNN’s management. In his eyes, he was not a part of the network’s future, in terms of the direction it wanted to go.
“CNN, the strategy and their content and the direction they wanted to go in, I was not a part of that,” Lemon told Swishner.“They did not want me to be a part of that, and I think that has, from what has played out publicly as it relates to CNN, as it relates to management, and what they’re doing now, I think that it’s obvious that they didn’t want me to be a part of that.”
Lemon may be out at CNN, but he will be just fine with his $24.5 million and new show coming to X (formerly Twitter). The Wrap noted the program, called “The Don Lemon Show,” will enable him to be “bigger, bolder, freer.”
Viewers can expect the show to “be available to everyone, easily, whenever and wherever you want it, streaming on the platforms where conversations are happening…. This is just the beginning so stay tuned.”
Despite sources cited in its report, The Wrap mentioned a CNN spokesperson avoided commenting “on specifics of any employee contract” while pointing out that “the site’s “story is incorrect.”
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: Don Lemon Reflects on Hosting New Show After CNN Ouster: ‘I Don’t Have to Worry About Getting in Trouble’
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