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CNN’s Don Lemon rattled his fellow morning show talent as well as crew following an off-camera confrontation with co-host Kaitlin Collins, during which he “screamed” at her for allegedly interrupting him on the air.
According to the New York Post, a number of sources described the incident and the aftermath on the set of “CNN This Morning.” Tensions are rising as the show tanks and as Lemon, apparently, is unhappy sharing on-air duties with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlin Collins.
The Post noted:
According to two sources with knowledge of the situation, the 56-year-old Lemon approached 30-year-old Collins following the show’s Thursday, Dec. 8 broadcast — and unloaded on her in front of staffers as he accused her of “interrupting” him on air.
News of the explosive incident made its way up to CNN CEO Chris Licht, who is said to have been appalled by Lemon’s behavior, according to a source. A second source said a producer talked to Lemon at the behest of Licht and told the anchor to take the next day off to “cool off.”
“Don screamed at Kaitlan, who was visibly upset and ran out of the studio,” one source with knowledge of the incident told The Post.
Don Lemon 'screamed' at 'CNN This Morning' co-host, left crew 'rattled': sources https://t.co/WKdXwreoJO pic.twitter.com/GKuU3Xu357
— New York Post (@nypost) February 2, 2023
The outlet reported as well that the night after the incident, Lemon, Harlow, and Collins were scheduled to get drinks and travel together to a White House Christmas party for media figures, the source noted. However, the gathering never took place and the three traveled to the party separately, said “an insider.” Following the party, Lemon and his agent, Jay Sures, had a late-night dinner, sources added.
The Post went on to note that things are “especially awkward” because Collins, viewed as “a rising star” with the network whose most recent assignment prior to taking the morning show gig was serving as CNN’s youngest White House correspondent, is also represented by “the powerful and well-connected Sures.”
“At this point, Kaitlan wants to be on set with Don as little as possible,” one source with knowledge of what’s going on told The Post. “It’s messy.”
Last week, another insider told The Wrap that the three co-hosts also appear to be frustrated with the show’s progression after CNN CEO Chris Licht hand-selected them for the gig.
“The show can’t decide strategically what exactly it is, so it’s trying to be everything which can create whiplash for a viewer when segments seem off-brand in tonality,” the insider said. “The audience for morning news on network TV is different than the cable news audience and since we’re not gaining new viewers we definitely need to retain our legacy ones.”
More changes are coming to the network’s daytime programming, but the insider said, “Upcoming programming changes are likely to make matters worse.”
Another CNN figure, former Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, is having difficulty attracting an audience as well.
In fact, according to the latest Nielsen ratings, his show, “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” scored its lowest during the month of January in terms of overall viewers, with the final week of the month being the worst since the program launched in the spring of 2022.
For the entire month of January, “Wallace’s show averaged only 365,000 viewers. Even worse, in advertisers’ coveted 25-54 demographic, his struggling program pulled in an average of just 48,000 viewers,” the Western Journal reported.
Wallace’s show was initially scheduled for CNN+, the network’s planned subscription streaming service that flopped about a month after it was launched at the cost of some $300 million.
The Washington Examiner noted as well that on Sunday, Wallace’s program only managed to pull in around 323,000 viewers and 38,000 in the 25-54 demo.
Generally speaking, CNN is struggling mightily, with few of its shows really gaining much traction.
“CNN just notched its lowest ratings in nine years across all its day parts for the week of Jan. 16 through Jan. 22, 2023, according to Nielsen, averaging just 444,000 viewers in primetime, 93,000 in the all-important age 25-54 news demographic and 417,000 in viewers and 80,000 in the demo for total day,” The Wrap reported. “It’s the first time since May 2014 that the network failed to reach 450,000 viewers.”
