CNN President Chris Licht said Monday that anchor Don Lemon is a “lightning rod” following several recent reports of his misogynistic and “diva-like” behavior.
Licht, who took over the network in May 2022, pulled Lemon from his primetime show at the 10:00 p.m. time slot in September and assigned him to the new morning show, “CNN This Morning,” with co-hosts Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow.
Lemon has come under scrutiny for his alleged misogyny toward female coworkers after saying on-air that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, 51, is past her “prime.”
“Don Lemon is a lightning rod because he really came to prominence during an era where that was celebrated and encouraged in primetime,” Licht said on stage at a media summit while Lemon was in the audience. “That was CNN’s primetime. That is not CNN’s primetime. The world has moved on from that. Don has moved on from that.”
“Don was the first one to go ‘I’m tired of having to set my hair on fire every night, I want to try something new,'” Licht continued. “So the Don Lemon who’s in Memphis getting that incredible reporting is the Don Lemon we have in the morning, not the one who was in primetime, and we both agree that that’s the Don Lemon we want.”
Licht referred to the lineup under former CNN President Jeff Zucker, who resigned from the network in Feb. 2022 after news broke of a secret romantic relationship between Zucker and CNN chief marketing officer Allison Gollust. Licht has worked to change the network’s program lineup in an attempt to increase ratings and make its coverage more politically balanced. (RELATED: CNN President Chris Licht Condemns Don Lemon’s ‘Upsetting’ Remarks About Nikki Haley)
After the remark about Haley, Lemon took a hiatus from the program and issued an apology. He underwent “formal training” in the aftermath and returned to the network shortly thereafter.
“The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it,” Lemon said. “A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.”
On Wednesday, Variety published a long report detailing a pattern of alleged threats and other inappropriate behavior during Lemon’s career at CNN.
The report claimedthat the anchor threatened his former co-worker Kyra Phillips in a text message after he grew jealous of her assignment to Iraq. “Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it,” Lemon allegedly wrote. The report also alleged that Lemon called one of his female producers fat directly to her face, and allegedly dated a lower-ranking CNN staffer nearly 20 years his junior.
Lemon has considered filing a lawsuit against Variety over the report, according to Insider.