Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk and his social media platform X for breach of contract, after Lemon’s show on the platform was scrapped prior to its debut.
In a new filing obtained by The Epoch Times, Lemon is accusing the billionaire tech mogul and his company of “fraud, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of name and likeness,” and “unjust enrichment.”
In January, the two entered a content agreement involving Lemon hosting his own show on the platform, court documents say. The deal was worth $1.5 million annually in addition to advertising revenue, full authority over his content, and financial incentives.
According to the lawsuit, filed in San Francisco state court, Lemon claims Musk made “false representations and promises” about the exclusive partnership.
Musk canceled the partnership in March, and the complaint alleges that Lemon had already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into creating the show.
The complaint says that while there was no signed agreement with X, Lemon had a phone conversation with Musk in June 2023 during which Musk asked him to enter the exclusive partnership despite having initial reservations.
The show was set to be centered around politics, culture, sports, and entertainment divided into three 30-minute episodes a week.
X would be given exclusive rights to the content 24 hours before it was shared to other platforms, and Lemon was promised 60 percent of gross advertising revenue generated from his content and performance threshold payments based on follower counts, the complaint says.
On March 13, Lemon announced in a post on X that Musk had terminated the deal “hours after an interview” Lemon conducted with him on March 8 for the premiere episode of the new show, saying Musk’s “commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me.”
In a response on the same day, X said that the platform reserves the right to make decisions regarding its business partnerships, and that, “after careful consideration,” it decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the Don Lemon Show.
Under the same post, Musk replied that Lemon’s “approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media’.”
Lemon alleges in the lawsuit that X enriched itself and reaped the benefits of using Lemon’s name, likeness, identity, and reputation in an effort to entice advertisers after a number of major companies suspended their ads from the platform in 2023.
Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion before rebranding the platform as X. Since the axed deal, Lemon continues to post content on his X account.
Lemon was fired from CNN last year after 17 years with the network following a slew of controversial on-air comments and personal scandals during that time.
“Lemon was a top prospect for X, and thus, Defendants saw an opportunity and sought to reach an exclusive partnership deal with Lemon, following his termination at CNN, at a time when Lemon was vulnerable,” reads the suit.
The Epoch Times has reached out to representatives of both parties for comment.
Lemon is seeking an unspecified amount in monetary damages, including attorney fees and injunctive relief.
From The Epoch Times