CNN will pay its former anchor Don Lemon around $24.5 million as part of a deal arranged following his ouster from the network last year, according to TheWrap. Sources told the outlet that’s how much pay Lemon was set to receive if he’d completed his contract three-and-a-half years on from the point at which he was shown the door. The 57-year-old announced last April that he was “stunned” to learn he had been “terminated” by CNN. His ouster came in the wake of remarks he’d made on-air about Nikki Haley no longer being in her “prime,” prompting an angry backlash from his colleagues (and, ultimately, a public apology). Lemon is hoping to return to the limelight by launching a new show on Elon Musk’s X in coming weeks. He hailed the social media platform as “the biggest space for free speech in the world” when he unveiled his plans last month, confirming that he’s apparently following the Tucker Carlson template for staging a comeback in the wake of a dramatic downfall from cable stardom.
