Fired CNN host Don Lemon has filed a lawsuit against X Corp, X executives and X owner Elon Musk, claiming that Musk’s decision to not move forward with his contract caused him “psychological and emotional distress, humiliation, and mental and physical pain and anguish.”
The disgraced former CNN host accused Musk and his company of fraud, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract, claiming that Musk had convinced him to sign on to a partnership “through false promises and representations about what would be expected of them and how much Lemon would be compensated to get him to agree, all while concealing material facts from Lemon.”
“Contrary to the promises and representations made to Lemon, once Defendants were enriched and gained the benefits of using Lemon’s name, likeness, identity, and reputation, they reneged on their express agreement with Lemon and have failed to compensate him, citing to false pretenses for their breach of the partnership agreement,” the lawsuit claims.
After being fired from CNN for a myriad of reasons including “sexist” remarks made on air, Lemon announced “The Don Lemon Show” on X in January 2024. The show’s first episode was widely mocked, as he interviewed Musk and repeatedly tried to smear the Tesla CEO throughout the interview, while also displaying pure ignorance of reality in his comments about various political issues.
https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1819043504728973422
The lawsuit claims that Musk used Lemon to “rehabilitate” X’s reputation — with the platform being targeted by ongoing efforts from the left to smear Musk and convince advertisers to stop supporting the platform — and then dumped the former CNN host when it was convenient for them.
Meanwhile, Musk canceled the partnership soon after the first episode aired, pointing out in a post on X that the show was not what he expected. Rather than being a podcast-style show with “the real Don Lemon,” Musk noted that it was essentially a corporate CNN-style show with no new ideas, which does not play well on social media.
“His approach was basically just “CNN, but on social media”, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying. And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity,” he wrote.
Musk then pointed out that the show was still able to be posted on X, but that the company would not be paying for a show that has little chance of making enough money to recoup those expenses.
His approach was basically just “CNN, but on social media”, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.
And, 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…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 13, 2024
The lawsuit states that just one day after the interview, Musk texted his agent stating that the “contract [with Defendants] is cancelled.”
“Close to this time, [X executive Brett Weitz] spoke with Lemon by phone and told Lemon that Defendants were not going to pay him or follow through with the promises and representations made to him because there was no signed agreement, despite Musk previously representing to Lemon that there would be no need for a formal written agreement or to ‘fill out paperwork,’” the lawsuit states.
Lemon claims in the lawsuit that he had signed on to a one-year deal, where he would be paid $1.5 million, along with 60% of cross-advertising revenue that the company received from Lemon’s content. He was also allegedly promised gradually increasing payments tied to meeting follower thresholds, $500,000 in X advertising credits and 10% of “the net revenue that X receives once it exceeds $350,000 for content creators that Lemon referred to X.” Lemon was also reportedly given the option to renew this deal two times.
The lawsuit continued: “Later, Defendants claimed that they never entered into a partnership deal with Lemon, which demonstrates the fraudulent nature of Defendants’ promises and representations in that they had already entered into an express agreement with Lemon and were instead violating that partnership. As a result, Defendants have provided false and inconsistent reasons for refusing to pay Lemon that completely contradicts what Musk told Lemon’s agent in his text message.”
Meanwhile, a previous news report contradicts the narrative that Lemon and Musk had a sealed deal, as it was revealed in March that Lemon had given Musk an outrageous list of demands to sign on to a partnership with X — which included a guarantee that he would be able to host the first podcast in outer space via Musk’s SpaceX company, a Tesla Cybertruck, a $5 million advance payment from an $8 million salary, as well as equity in X.
