Former CNN host Don Lemon on Thursday sued Elon Musk and his social media company X, alleging Musk duped him into believing they had a business partnership and that he was never paid for the work he did.
Lemon, who was ousted from CNN last year, had planned to make a comeback by launching a podcast on X through what the TV news personality believed to be a lucrative business deal made in January.
The one-year deal would give Lemon $1.5 million with other financial incentives for making X the exclusive home of “The Don Lemon Show” for 24 hours after each episode debuted, according to Lemon’s lawsuit. He also would get a portion of the advertising generated from the program, as well as additional money if he met certain performance metrics, the lawsuit said. In return, Lemon would own the content he created for the show.
But there was no contract signed, as Musk said they did not need to have a formal written agreement or to “fill out paperwork,” Lemon alleged in his lawsuit. Lemon also received assurances that he would have control over his content even if Musk disliked it, the lawsuit said.
An attorney for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As part of the deal, Lemon said he was asked by X to appear at CES, a major tech gathering in Las Vegas formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, with X Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino to discuss the partnership and meet with potential advertisers. At the time, X was struggling to boost its advertising business and partnering with Lemon would help provide more stability to the platform after it was acquired by Musk in 2022, according to Lemon’s lawsuit.
X, formerly known as Twitter, also promoted Lemon’s show and partnership on its platform.
But after Lemon had spent significant money and effort on preparing his program for X, the social media company pulled out of the deal in March after Lemon‘s first episode, an interview with Musk, was not to the SpaceX and Tesla billionaire’s liking. Lemon’s questions about Musk’s past drug use made the entrepreneur uncomfortable, Lemon said. Musk later texted Lemon’s agent that the contract was canceled and Lemon was told by an X representative that the company was not going to pay him because there was no signed agreement, the lawsuit said.
“Defendants deliberately misrepresented what they intended to do,” according to the lawsuit, which says Lemon has not been paid for his efforts. “[Musk and X] knew that if they accurately represented to Lemon that the purpose and meaning of the exclusive partnership deal was to use Lemon’s name, likeness, reputation, and identity to rehabilitate [their] reputation and draw in advertisers to the X platform, Lemon would never had agreed to do what he did.”
Times news researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
