Don Lemon‘s agent has denied allegations that he submitted a list of extravagant demands to X owner Elon Musk before his planned show was cancelled on the social media platform.
Claims published in the New York Post on Friday alleged that Lemon had sent a “wish list” to Musk as they negotiated details of Lemon’s show to be hosted on X (formerly Twitter). The demands allegedly included an $8 million salary in addition to a $5 million upfront payment, a Tesla cybertruck, equity stake in X and the right to approve any changes in X policy as it related to news content.
Lemon’s agent, UTA’s Jay Sures, denied the claims, telling The Post: “This is absolute, complete utter nonsense without an iota of truth to it.” (The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to UTA for additional comment.)
The reports come several days after Lemon said Musk had canceled “the partnership I had with X” and that Musk had done so only hours after Lemon had interviewed him for what would have been the show’s debut episode on Friday.
Also on Friday, Musk posted to X comparing Lemon to a character from Willy Wonka, writing, “Don ‘Veruca Salt.’”
Lemon’s interview with Musk, originally set to release Friday on X and Monday on YouTube, will still release on the latter platform on March 18. All future episodes, Lemon said, will also be available on YouTube.
In a reply to a thread on X, Musk said he canceled Lemon’s show because “his approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media’, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying. And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity.”
“X is a platform that champions free speech, and we’re proud to provide an open environment for diverse voices and perspectives,” X also said in a statement. “The Don Lemon Show is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities. However, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.”
