Don Lemon denies ex-CNN colleague Chris Cuomo’s – Business News
Don Lemon is denying ex-CNN colleague Chris Cuomo’s claims that a yearslong “bromance” that the pair portrayed during the handoff between their two primetime slots was faux.
Lemon — who was fired from the community in 2023 after a sequence of on-air gaffes and complaints about his off-air conduct together with his friends — denied Cuomo’s latest dish that their then-boss Jeff Zucker had requested Cuomo to keep him in examine by enjoying up a friendship for viewers.
Lemon generated headlines on Monday after a “man-on-the-street” podcast section went off the rails when a passerby in Manhattan advised him that he was “full of s–t” and a “f–king moron.”
Don Lemon is denying that Jeff Zucker requested Chris Cuomo to keep him in examine. Semafor
During their heyday at CNN, Cuomo and Lemon have been recognized for his or her on-air banter as the previous, whose one-hour discuss show ended at round 9 p.m. ET, “handed off” to the latter in a section that grew common with the community’s viewers.
But Cuomo threw cold water on the on-air relationship, telling Patrick Bet David in a podcast interview earlier this 12 months that Zucker ordered him to stay round after his primetime slot “to help mitigate whatever’s going to come out of [Lemon’s] mouth.”
Lemon pushed back on the declare.
“Well, you know, Jeff and I are friends and I see Jeff and talk to him weekly… and I asked him about that and he just laughed and said, ‘Uh, that’s really sad,’” Lemon stated on the “Mixed Signals” podcast on Monday.
“Why would he have to come on my show… It was for me to say, ‘Okay, Chris, thank you. Goodbye.’ I could kick him off whenever I wanted to.”
Lemon stated that the “whole handoff thing came about because when Jeff came to the network, he said one show would just go… without any interaction between anchors.”
Lemon, the previous CNN prime time star who was fired from the community in 2023 after a sequence of on-air gaffes and complaints about his off-air conduct together with his friends, took concern with latest claims by Cuomo that their “bromance” was faux. CNN
“Well, you know, Jeff and I are friends and I see Jeff and talk to him weekly… and I asked him about that and he just laughed and said, ‘Uh, that’s really sad,’” Lemon stated. Lemon is pictured with Zucker in 2016. AFP through Getty Images
“And he told everyone, ‘I want a handoff.’ So there was a handoff with Anderson to Chris… And so he wanted a handoff between shows and I said, ‘Oh, you want a handoff? I’m going to give you a handoff.’”
According to Lemon, he leaned into the bit. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to talk to Chris. I’ll give him s– and I’ll make it really fun and then I’ll go on and do the news.’ And so that whole idea about that lengthy handoff, that was my idea. That that was me.”
The CNN alums’ nightly banter turned one of the community’s highest-rated stretches, based on Lemon.
“In my head I was like, ‘This is the highest rated point of the day on the network. Why are we running away from it just to get to a rundown?’ And so that was me doing that on my own,” Lemon stated.
The Post has sought remark from Zucker and Cuomo.
Cuomo, now at NewsNation, has expressed bitterness over what he views as Lemon’s failure to stand up for him within the time main up to his exit from the community.
During their heyday at CNN, Cuomo and Lemon have been recognized for his or her on-air banter. CNN
The pair as soon as parlayed their chemistry into “The Handoff” podcast and even went on tour collectively. But their friendship unraveled after Cuomo was fired in December 2021 for secretly advising his brother, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, during his sexual harassment scandal.
Chris Cuomo dismissed any likelihood of reviving their partnership.
“Why would I do it?” he stated when requested if he’d podcast with Lemon again.
“You think he’s going to apologize to me?… I am a loyalty guy… You’re ride or die, or you’re not.”
In February 2022, Zucker was ousted from his place as head of CNN after it was realized he had been carrying on a romantic relationship with a subordinate, Allison Gollust, who on the time was the community’s advertising and marketing chief.
Lemon’s downfall got here in April 2023 after he declared on-air that GOP candidate Nikki Haley, then 51, was “not in her prime” — remarks that have been branded sexist.
Lemon was advised he was “full of s–t” and that he’s a “f–king moron” during a podcast section earlier this week. YouTube / Don Lemon
Since then, Lemon has launched “The Don Lemon Show” on YouTube. Cuomo has used his NewsNation perch to swipe at his former colleague.
“I don’t find what he’s saying particularly interesting,” Cuomo has stated.
Still, Lemon insists he holds no grudge.
“I never said we’re not friends; I just haven’t spoken to him,” he advised Mediaite final 12 months. “We needed a little break. But I love Chris. I love his family. Very close to his family. But we have not spoken, no.”
Asked again this week, Lemon struck a dismissive word: “I don’t know what Chris is talking about. I just, you know, I feel, you know, whatever. Good luck to him.”
