Don Lemon has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and X, formerly known as Twitter, over the cancellation of a content deal with the platform, accusing the billionaire and the company of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, misuse of name and image, and breach of contract.
The lawsuit comes more than four months after a public spat that followed the short-lived Lemon X show ending after just one episode with Musk as the first guest.
In the lawsuit filed in San Francisco on Thursday, Lemon alleged that in January, Musk and X agreed to pay the former CNN journalist a guaranteed $1.5 million in exchange for an exclusive one-year deal with the platform ($200,000 up front, the rest in quarterly installments) along with a majority share of advertising revenue from his content and an option to renew, among other sweeteners.
Musk terminated the deal shortly after filming the first episode, after Lemon asked Musk about his use of ketamine and the 2024 election. Musk texted Lemon’s agent saying, “Contract canceled.”
According to the lawsuit, Musk told Lemon that the journalist “would have complete power and control over the work he produced even if the defendants didn’t like it,” further alleging that Musk said there was no formal contract as Musk said there was no need to “fill out paperwork.”
Musk and X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. When the show was canceled in March, Musk tweeted that “Lemon’s approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.”
“Instead of being the real Don Lemon, he was actually just [former CNN president] “Jeff Zucker speaks through Don, so lacks authenticity,” Musk tweeted.
Musk and X tried to court Lemon shortly after he was fired from CNN, but Lemon claims in the lawsuit that he had reservations about an exclusive deal given the controversies that have surrounded X and Musk since he bought the platform in 2022. In December 2023, Lemon had dinner with X CEO Linda Yaccarino and head of content, talent and brand sales Brett Weitz, telling them that it was crucial that he could “maintain his journalistic integrity.” The executives assured Lemon that he would have their full support, the lawsuit says.
Lemon alleged in the lawsuit that X pressured him to sign the deal before the annual CES trade show in Las Vegas last January, and to send a social media post announcing the deal the same day.
“Defendants intentionally misrepresented what they intended to do,” Lemon’s lawsuit states. “Defendants knew that if they had accurately explained to Lemon that the purpose and meaning of the Exclusive Partnership Agreement was to use Lemon’s name, likeness, reputation, and identity to rehabilitate Defendants’ reputation and attract advertisers to the X platform, Lemon would never have agreed to do what he did and Defendants would not have been able to use Lemon to further their ongoing efforts to attract advertisers.”
