Don Lemon’s ugly rift with CNN boss Chris Licht began on the first day of his ill-fated stint as host of “CNN This Morning” — and the problem was Lemon’s bizarre outfit, according to a report.
On the morning of the show’s Nov. 1 debut, Lemon — who was eventually fired by Licht on April 24 after 17 years at the left-leaning news network — waltzed onto the set wearing a white jacket with a fur collar, The Atlantic reported.
“What the f–k is he wearing?” Licht, the network’s 51-year-old chief executive, cried out when he saw Lemon’s over-the-top look, according to the explosive report published on Friday.
Lemon proceeded to take the jacket off before he went on air alongside co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, but then butchered the opening line of the segment, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources close to the situation.
“Read the f-cking prompter,” Licht exclaimed in frustration, according to the report.
Since the show’s debut, Licht reportedly slammed Lemon for injecting too much commentary into each segment, including when he described 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley as not “in her prime.”
According to the magazine, top executives, fearing there was no way to salvage Lemon’s position at “CNN This Morning,” urged Licht to fire Lemon. Lemon, for his part, “pitched an attempt at damage control — a prime-time special on misogyny, which he would host with a roundtable of women,” according to the report.
Licht rejected the idea.
In the wake of outrage over the misogynistic comment, Lemon began telling allies that Al Sharpton, Ben Crump, and other black leaders “come to his aid if he were axed from the network, and would defend his firing as a move to bolster CNN’s whiteness,” according to the report.
A spokesperson for Lemon denied this account to the outlet, and said Licht’s team spread rumors about Lemon to distract from his own failures as the boss.
The Post reached out to Don Lemon’s agent, Jay Sures of UTA, for comment.
Licht reportedly lured Lemon to the 6 a.m. show from his primetime spot with a $7 million-a-year deal as he placed him alongside co-anchors Harlow and Collins. He hoped the contrasting personalities of a gay, black southerner and two renowned female reporters from Minnesota and Alabama would be the “fun” viewers craved, according to The Atlantic.
Licht promised the show would be a “game-changing” morning segment for cable news, though it brought in some of CNN’s lowest ratings it had ever seen, sorely lagging ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today”.
Lemon’s outfits, off-hand commentary and controversial opinions made him the provocateur of the trio of anchors — and caused him to butt heads with Licht, the outlet revealed in a damning report of CNN’s recent meltdown surrounding its town hall event with Donald Trump.
Though Licht reportedly had grounds to axe Lemon for his “diva” behavior, he kept him in the lucrative role as one of CNN’s only black voices, The Atlantic report claims. But the controversies only compounded after Lemon took the new gig.
The Post reached out to CNN for comment.
In the weeks following the morning show’s launch, Lemon got into an awkward dispute with both Collins and Harlow after he suggested the US men’s soccer team should get paid more than the women’s side.
“The men’s team makes more money. If they make more money, then they should get more money,” Lemon said.
“The men’s team makes more money because people are more interested in the men.”
Then in December, just one month after the “CNN This Morning” debut, tensions between co-hosts boiled over when Lemon “screamed” at Collins off-camera, sources revealed to The Post.
According to two sources with knowledge of the situation, 57-year-old Lemon approached 31-year-old Collins when the camera stopped rolling during the show’s Dec. 8 broadcast — and unloaded on her in front of staffers as he accused her of “interrupting” him on air.
In the aftermath, a source said: “At this point, Kaitlan wants to be on set with Don as little as possible … It’s messy.”
In February, Lemon sparked outrage when he described 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley as not “in her prime.”
During the broadcast, Lemon told co-hosts Harlow and Collins that “a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” in light of Haley saying politicians over the age of 75 should be required to undergo cognitive testing.
In a tweet posted the day he was axed, Lemon claimed to have been blindsided by the news, saying he was informed that CNN fired him via his agent, UTA’s Jay Sures.
In the post, he also claimed he was never “given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network,” and said that “it is clear that there are some larger issues at play.”
CNN fired back with a tweet saying: “Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate. He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”
Inside CNN, staffers are said to be “ecstatic” that Lemon is no longer at the network, as he had become a major distraction.
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