Don Lemon was CNN’s “it” guy, but after Jeff Zucker was fired and the merger between Warner Bros. & Discovery was completed, Lemon’s future began to look uncertain. Lemon was certain to be the one who would lose his job due to CNN’s other well-known faces.
Lemon was spared by Warner, probably because of a very expensive contract that Warner did not want to buy. They decided to remove him from his primetime slot and place him on a morning show called “CNN This Morning.” Lemon was ready for a new day.
They placed the sinking host in a slot that is competing with “Morning Joe”, on MSNBC, as well as “Fox & Friends”, on Fox News. This is the only problem. Lemon and his morning co-hosts did not attract enough viewers. According to the New York Post, it was embarrassingly few.
The network promoted the show heavily, but “CNN This Morning”‘s first show attracted only 387,000 viewers. According to Nielsen ratings, 71,000 viewers were in the 25-54 age group, which is highly sought after by advertisers.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, on the other hand, had 793,000 viewers from 6-9 AM ET. Fox News’ Fox & Friends was the winner with an average of nearly 1.5 million viewers.
Lemon’s Tuesday program was the lowest-ranked show on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN.
Ouch!!!
A CNN spokesperson stated that no morning show had stellar ratings in its first episode. It’s possible that ratings will rise over time but this is Don Lemon’s Don “white men represent the greatest terrorist threat to America” Lemon. He was promoted by this move to a different time slot. His ratings should have been stronger!
Lemon’s star was actually already low and seemed to be fading. Lemon’s rhetoric was so divisive, even a former CNN producer begged CNN to make him change his tune. CNN’s brass knows that Lemon is a threat to the network for all intents.
This move will definitely put Lemon in an easier spot, but it will be interesting for what happens when Lemon’s contract expires.
