Don Lemon dug into his past to fuel his future.
In the not-so-distant past, Lemon played an interesting role in CNN’s long-running New Year’s Eve coverage. Once Anderson Cooper and co-hosts Kathy Griffin or Andy Cooper have finished hosting duties for the night, the spotlight will turn to Lemon. Lemon usually worked tenaciously in southern cities and was less formal than his cable news colleagues. He may absorb it. He may have his ears pierced. In one unforgettable moment, Lemon told viewers that he was a “grown man” and that he was “able to share my opinions on TV, which surprises people, but you know what? You can kiss me behind the back. I don’t care. I don’t care.”
Not surprisingly, something like that went viral
Lemon relied on that very aspect when he returned to cover New Year’s Eve in December for the first time since leaving CNN in 2023. However, this time he was working for himself rather than a mainstream media organization.
“You don’t get many opportunities to get to this stage in life and reinvent yourself and learn new things,” Lemon said in a recent interview. He has embraced the so-called “creator” economy by using digital venues such as YouTube and Instagram to build his own series of interviews and news discussions. His departure after CNN was placed under the protection of former Discovery Communications executives “forced us to change direction.” As a result, he added, “I feel younger and more part of the culture and zeitgeist than I did when I worked for the news organization.”
Don Lemon’s New Year’s Eve Special generated over 30 million views across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, and the 6.5-hour livestream reached over 600,000 live viewers across YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. A clip of the special on TikTok generated 3.1 million views and earned the digital host more than 3,000 new followers. On Instagram and Facebook, the clip received 26 million views and gained 20,000 followers.
Meanwhile, CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage, led by Cooper and Andy Cohen, averaged nearly 2.77 million viewers across traditional television from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Lemon wasn’t trying to compete with what he called “New York New Year’s Eve,” knowing full well that ABC’s long-running “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” and CNN’s special coverage were staples for certain viewer groups. Instead, he focused on New Orleans and treated the occasion like a football game. Viewers could see him visiting the streets where parties are held, holding pre-event shows that he likened to tailgates, and getting ready ahead of the actual event. He teamed up with local officials and local chefs to use the live stream to raise money for Manning Family Children’s, a local children’s hospital.
He wasn’t entirely sure he could get through it all. He needed to hire a production crew and camera personnel and ensure proper connectivity to ensure the event space remained intact throughout the day. He also had to make sure his interviews were sponsored, and his team provided Don Julio Tequila.
“I had to learn not only editing, but also the technology and business side,” Lemon says.
Fans of his New Year’s antics on CNN may have enjoyed a remote cameo by former CNN afternoon anchor Brooke Baldwin, who once appeared with Lemon on New Year’s Eve. Baldwin was also in talks with Kathy Griffin about possibly appearing in the film.
Lemon gives a more casual look. He no longer wears jackets or dress shirts. But he says such work is far from easy. Initially, he performed shows behind a desk in a traditional studio, but he realized that people wanted to see him interviewing people on the street in his authentic fashion. “I had to loosen up my own training” and let go of some of my TV habits. And he also had to juggle a new job: “You have to be relentless and shameless. You can’t judge yourself,” he says. “You have to read the ads. You have to read the ads. And you have to be present all the time.”
With his New Year’s success, Lemon is poised to double down on big events throughout 2026. Look for him at the Grammys and preferably the Super Bowl.
Lemon’s new job at Creator Media may look radically different from his time at CNN, but some may see it as an extension. The 2022 host was planning a weekly talk show on a streaming service called CNN+, but it was canceled shortly after the service launched. Lemon also pushed for new ideas to be tried later in prime time. He anchors CNN at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. and recalls that he had long wanted to do a show with people “sitting in big lounge chairs or club chairs or couches and doing a more relaxed show.” CNN told him at the time that the concept would be difficult to execute. “All of a sudden, Greg Gutfeld is doing it,” he says of the Fox News host who leads a late-night-style show at 10 p.m. “I think it was great, but hey, I can still do it.”
Indeed, the appeal of Lemon’s new job is that he gets to try anything at least once, as long as he tests concepts that viewers find authentic and interesting. Still, when you lead a show and the business and logistics behind it, the work never ends. “It’s a lot of work. You can’t take your foot off the pedal,” Lemon says.
