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CNN’s Don Lemon appears to have gone even further with his rage following an off-the-air incident with morning show co-host Kaitlin Collins.
According to a recent report from the New York Post, several sources said that Lemon “screamed” at Collins following an on-air incident on the set of “CNN This Morning,” with tensions continuing to rise as the show tanks and as Lemon, apparently, is unhappy sharing on-air duties with Collins and fellow co-host Poppy Harlow.
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.
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.
Now, Radar Online is reporting on the fallout from The Post’s report last week after CNN reportedly included a link to it in one of its internal newsletters.
“Don lost his mind internally and went ballistic at staffers after the CNN newsletter highlighted a story about him screaming,” the “insider” told Radar Online for its Friday report.
“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 that 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.”
Another CNN personality, former Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace, isn’t doing well, either, as the network continues shedding viewers. 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 slated 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.
The Western Journal added:
Wallace can’t win for losing these days, it seems. It’s not that people aren’t tuning into Sunday news programs, either. Take a gander at former Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy’s Sunday Fox News show for proof. “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” managed to garner over 1 million viewers on average in January, according to US TVDB. Gowdy also roughly doubled the number of 25-54 demographic viewers that Wallace pulled in.
Generally speaking, CNN is struggling mightily, with few of its shows really gaining much traction, including the recently revamped morning show.
“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 on Friday. “It’s the first time since May 2014 that the network failed to reach 450,000 viewers.”
