Openly gay TV journalist Don Lemon is out at CNN after 17 years.
Lemon, who had co-hosted CNN This Morning on April 24, said that he was informed by his agent that he had been terminated, according to Deadline. The show, with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins as co-hosts, will continue.
Neither Lemon nor CNN offered a reason for the exit, per USA Today.
The news came just minutes after Fox News Media announced that Tucker Carlson and Fox News Channel "have mutually agreed to part ways." CNN and Fox News each announced the news.
"I am stunned," Lemon tweeted. "After 17 years at CNN I would have thought someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network. It is clear that there are some larger issues at play." However, CNN's communications Twitter account said Lemon's public statements about his termination are not true.
Reportedly, his contract lasted through 2026.
In February, in a conversation about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Lemon received blowback for commenting on when women were "in their prime." He took several days off the show before apologizing and agreeing to participate in formal training.
As for Carlson, the network announced the stunning news days after it agreed to pay nearly $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems to avoid a high-stakes defamation trial that had cast a shadow over the future of the network. Like with Lemon, Fox News did not specify why Carlson is leaving, per NBC News.
Andrew Davis