Regional reporter Early in his career, Lemon reported as a weekend
news anchor for
WBRC in
Birmingham, Alabama, and for
WCAU in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For several years he was an anchor and
investigative reporter for Fox affiliate
KTVI in
St. Louis,
Missouri, and Fox's Chicago affiliate. Lemon reported for
NBC News' New York City operations, including working as a correspondent for both
Today, and
NBC Nightly News; and as an anchor on
Weekend Today and programs on
MSNBC. In 2003, he began working at NBC
owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV in Chicago, and was a reporter and local news co-anchor. He has also voiced strong opinions on ways that the African American community can improve their lives, which has caused some controversy. In 2014, CNN began to pilot prime time shows hosted by Lemon, including
The Eleventh Hour and
The Don Lemon Show. Following the disappearance of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Lemon began to host a special, nightly program featuring discussion and analysis of the event by aviation experts. After a realignment of CNN's schedule following the cancellation of
Piers Morgan Live, this hour was replaced by the news program
CNN Tonight; Lemon would later become the permanent host of the hour as
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. Lemon has also participated in CNN's ''
New Year's Eve Live'' as a correspondent from a city in the
Central Time Zone, most often alongside fellow CNN anchor
Brooke Baldwin. In May 2021, it was announced that Lemon, along with fellow CNN journalist
Chris Cuomo, would launch a podcast named
The Handoff centering around "politics and personal". On May 17,
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon was retitled to simply
Don Lemon Tonight; Lemon apologized for how he teased the rebranding on his show, stating that he "didn't mean to set the internet on fire"—in reference to viewers who thought that Lemon would be departing CNN. In February 2022, CNN announced Lemon would be hosting a talk show for CNN's then-forthcoming streaming service
CNN+ called
The Don Lemon Show. Two episodes were released in the service's sole month of operation in April 2022. On September 15, 2022, it was announced that Lemon would co-anchor a new CNN morning show with
Kaitlan Collins and
Poppy Harlow later in the year. On October 12, 2022, it was announced that the morning show would be named
CNN This Morning. Lemon's tenure on the show ended with his April 2023 firing.
Political commentary Lemon's outspoken criticism of
Donald Trump made him a target of the president. In January 2018, after Trump controversially referred to countries such as
El Salvador,
Haiti, and
Honduras as
"shitholes" during a meeting on immigration, Lemon opened
CNN Tonight with a proclamation that "The president of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that." In March 2016, Lemon was interviewing
Omarosa Newman and
Kellyanne Conway about the Republican presidential primary. Lemon cut to a commercial break after calling for Newman's microphone to be turned off because she did not want to begin the interview with his original question about a tweet comparing the physical appearances of Trump's wife and US Senator
Ted Cruz's wife, which Trump had retweeted. In October 2018, during a discussion with
Chris Cuomo on
Cuomo Prime Time amid the
Jeffersontown shooting, Lemon argued that Americans should not "demonize any one group or any one ethnicity", and that
domestic terrorism by
white supremacist Americans, "most of them
radicalized to
the right", were a bigger threat to the safety of the country than foreigners. He went on to ask, "there is no travel ban on [white people], they have the
Muslim ban, there is no white guy ban, so what do we do about that?" Lemon's remarks were criticized by conservative figures, who felt that it was "race baiting" and contradicted his suggestion that Americans should not "demonize any one group or any one ethnicity." In response to the criticism, Lemon cited data from a report by the
Government Accountability Office stating that there had been 255 fatalities between September 12, 2001, and December 31, 2016, involving domestic extremists, and that killings by far-right extremists outranked those by Islamic extremists in 10 of the 15 years tracked. In the same period, no deaths were credited to attacks by far-left extremists.
Involvement in Jussie Smollett case Lemon faced accusations of unethical journalism during the trial of the
Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax case. It was revealed during court testimony that Lemon had sent Smollett messages informing him that the
Chicago Police Department did not believe his account of what had happened on the night in question. Lemon, who covered the trial on his
CNN show
Don Lemon Tonight, did not disclose his involvement or his interactions with Smollett.
Allegations of misogyny On February 19, 2023, after
Nikki Haley called for "mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old", Lemon said "this whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable, I think it is the wrong road to go down", before continuing "She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s." His remarks were criticized online as sexist; Lemon later apologized, and did not appear on
CNN This Morning on February 20; he returned on February 22. In April 2023,
Variety published a report alleging that Lemon had a history of misogynistic behavior towards his colleagues, including
Soledad O'Brien,
Kyra Phillips and
Nancy Grace, dating back to 2008. This reportedly included questioning whether O'Brien was black, threatening Phillips, and mocking Grace. A spokesperson for Lemon denied the allegations, saying, "The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is entirely based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip."
Firing from CNN On April 24, 2023, CNN fired Lemon; his contract would have expired in 2026. Lemon said that the firing came as a surprise, and that the network had failed to inform him in person, which CNN denied. This coincidentally occurred on the same day that
Tucker Carlson was fired by
Fox News. X owner
Elon Musk was the show's first guest. The interview topics included lawsuits filed by and against Musk, his usage of drugs, his political leanings, and his perspective on immigration and the
Great Replacement theory. However, after filming but before airing, Musk canceled the partnership. The interview then appeared on YouTube and as a podcast instead. The show now operates independently, with episodes streaming live and on-demand via its official YouTube channel @TheDonLemonShow. The channel delivers unfiltered discussions on current events like U.S. politics, the Trump administration, international crises such as Iran tensions, economic issues, and media freedom.
Cities Church protest and arrest on federal charges (2026) On January 18, 2026, Lemon livestreamed an anti-ICE protest inside
Cities Church in
Saint Paul, Minnesota, during a worship service. Activists alleged that a pastor associated with the church also held a leadership role within
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Lemon interviewed protesters and congregants during a multi-hour livestream. Following the protest, officials within the
U.S. Department of Justice sought to bring federal charges against Lemon and
Georgia Fort, an independent journalist from Minnesota who also covered the protest. According to reporting, prosecutors considered charging him under the
Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), codified at 18 U.S.C. §248, which prohibits the use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to interfere with a person's exercise of religious worship; and under 18 U.S.C. §241, a Reconstruction-era civil rights conspiracy statute commonly associated with the
Ku Klux Klan Act. A federal magistrate judge declined to approve the proposed criminal complaint, saying the government had not presented sufficient probable cause at that stage. Lemon said he was present as a journalist, and his attorney argued his conduct was protected by the
First Amendment. Speaking on
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he said that his attorney had told authorities he would turn himself in, but that offer went unacknowledged. On January 29, 2026, a federal
grand jury returned an
indictment and federal law enforcement surprised Lemon in a hotel lobby and took him into custody. Four others linked to the protest, including Georgia Fort, were arrested separately. Lemon was released without being required to post a bond on January 30, 2026 and said that "he will not be silenced". On February 13, 2026, while appearing before Minnesota-based Magistrate Judge Douglas L. Micko, Lemon pled not guilty.
Reactions to the arrest Don Lemon's arrest has drawn a strong response from free speech advocacy groups and press freedom groups, with the
National Press Club and
PEN America saying, "journalism is not a crime". The
ACLU described the move as a serious threat to freedom of the press and the
First Amendment. Isha Bhandari, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said the prosecution of the journalists, after a federal judge denied their arrest warrants, sends a chilling message of pressure and intimidation. Former US Vice President
Kamala Harris referred to the arrest of Don Lemon and other independent journalists by the
Trump administration as an "affront to rights and freedoms". Harris said the arrest of the journalists by the Trump administration represented the suppression of a critical press. Eric Rassbach of the
Becket law firm expressed skepticism of Lemon's defense in
The Wall Street Journal. He said, “neither journalists nor protesters enjoy any constitutional right to invade someone else’s private space to report on the news or proclaim their message." ==Honors and awards==