Don Lemon took his first lesson in doing business from Elon Musk, the volatile owner of the social media platform X.
The former CNN host interviewed Musk on the first edition of his new podcast, “The Don Lemon Show,” which was scheduled to launch next week on X, formerly known as Twitter, and other online platforms.
Lemon said Wednesday in an X post that Musk was unhappy with the meeting and terminated the deal to move the software onto the platform.
The episode will be broadcast on Monday on YouTube and other platforms. Lemon said he would publish the interview on X as well.
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“This didn't change anything about the show except my relationship with Elon and X,” Lemon said in a video.
X announced in January that it had closed a cash deal to premiere The Don Lemon Show with additional exclusive content before it becomes available elsewhere.
Lemon invited the billionaire Tesla founder to his first program. Musk agreed and the interview was conducted on Tuesday without any restrictions.
Lemon said his questions were “respectful and wide-ranging,” covering topics ranging from SpaceX to the presidential election.
“We had a good conversation,” Lemon said in a statement on Channel X. He clearly felt differently. His commitment to a global city square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared doesn't seem to include questions about him from people like me.
In a post that was shared but no longer appears on Musk's X account, the businessman criticized Lemon's handling of the interview.
“His approach was essentially 'CNN but on social media,' which hasn't worked, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying,” Musk wrote. “Instead of being the real Don Lemon, it was actually just Jeff Zucker speaking through Don, so it lacked authenticity.”
Zucker is the former CNN president who boosted Lemon's career at the cable news channel.
Musk's post added that Lemon is still welcome to use the X platform to build viewership for his new show.
Lemon had a very successful 17-year run at CNN, where he became more of a commentator in the latter part of his tenure. The network posted the best ratings in its history for 2020 when Lemon held its 10 p.m. slot.
After CNN became part of Warner Bros. Discovery In 2022, the network hired Chris Licht to run the news channel with a mandate to move it more to the political center and feature more Republicans.
Lemon, a vocal critic of former President Trump, was moved from his prime-time role in 2022 to a new morning show for the band after being a solo act for years. The belief among many at CNN is that he was prepared to fail.
Lemon was fired on April 24, 2023. He collected the remainder of his salary at CNN — believed to be around $20 million — and began looking into the podcast space for his next move.
