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SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Elon Musk got hit this week with another lawsuit, this one from television personality Don Lemon. The former CNN host claims the billionaire owes him after backing out of a deal for an online interview show on X (formerly Twitter).
Lemon on Thursday sued Musk in San Francisco County Superior Court, with claims including fraud, misappropriation of name and likeness and breach of contract. Lemon claims he and Musk had a deal for an interview show on X, including a guaranteed $1.5 million annual salary and after other bonuses and incentives.
But after an awkward interview with Musk, in which Lemon asked the billionaire X owner about hate speech on the platform, Musk replied that “I don’t have to answer that question.” The show then quickly fell apart, and Lemon claims he never saw full profits from even that video.
Musk and the press office for X could not be reached for comment.
In Lemon’s complaint, he said he was in a vulnerable state in 2023 after CNN fired him for describing then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley as “past her prime.”
When Musk approached him with an offer to produce exclusive content for X, Lemon said he became convinced that such a deal could revive his career as an interviewer. He said that when he met with X CEO Linda Yaccarino in 2023, she and other company executives promised he would have total control of the show and all content produced for the platform.
As advertisers left the site following a string of controversies, including inflammatory tweets from Musk himself, Musk also needed funds, Lemon argued in his complaint. X’s advertising revenues took a 60% nosedive in year-over-year totals through August 2023, he said.
Believing he had a deal with X, Lemon said he made efforts to promote the new show and the platform, including by attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, posting about the partnership on social media, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up a company and studio and making deals to record interviews. But Lemon said the company deceived him, hoping to profit from the name recognition of a well-known American broadcaster without honoring its side of the agreement.
Just two months in, on March 8, Lemon attempted to interview Musk, pressing him about his views on conspiracy theories and his promotion of hateful accounts.
Musk became visibly irritated. “Choose your question carefully,” he chided Lemon at one point. Afterwards, Lemon says Musk texted his agent to cancel the deal. He says Brett Weitz, X’s head of brand and content, also told him he would not be paid.
Musk’s behavior showed that his goal was not to create a new show X on Lemon, but rather to rehabilitate his reputation, bring in advertisers and rebuild the company’s profits, the former anchor argued in his suit.
“At a time when defendants were under intense criticism and losing advertisers, defendants only intended to publicize a partnership between X and Lemon, and thereby associate and promote the X brand with Lemon’s good name, likeness, identity, and revered reputation,” Lemon said. He’s asking for a jury trial, along with punitive and psychological damages.
Lemon has won numerous awards during his journalism career, including a 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage on the D.C. snipers and three Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards in 2006. He was voted one of Ebony magazine’s 150 most influential Black Americans in 2009. In 2014, The Advocate named him as one of the 50 most influential LGBTQ people in media.
Musk has faced a string of recent lawsuits, including several from fired Twitter workers, some of which have been settled. Last month, a judge threw out another suit from workers who claimed Musk owed them $500 million.
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