CNN denies Don Lemon negotiated $24.5M exit deal: That ‘is incorrect’

Despite a report from The Wrap that former CNN anchor Don Lemon will collect $24.5 million to fill out the remainder of his contract, other network sources deny the story.

The Wrap first reported the news Feb. 26, 2024, citing unnamed sources.

The site goes on to claim Lemon is getting that entire remaining value of his contract from the network. All of The Wrap’s claims are in a single paragraph, with the rest of the story filled out with background information about Lemon and his firing. 

There was no comment from CNN in The Wrap’s story.

“While we never comment on specifics of any employee contract, this story is incorrect,” a CNN spokesperson told NewscastStudio.

According to NewscastStudio reporting, Lemon’s exit deal has been signed for several months now. A source also disputed the $24.5 million figure.

News anchors often do sign multi-year deals that outline things such as salary, time slots, number of hours on the air and a variety of perks. Some deals are more strict than others, depending on how the contract is negotiated. 

Many anchor contracts contain clauses that allow the network to terminate them for a variety of behavior, especially public incidents that could embarrass the network or station. Because Lemon’s contract is confidential it’s not clear if his comments about Nikki Haley or alleged behind-the-scene squabbles and behavior against co-workers that lead to him enrolling in sensitivity training would have been enough to trigger such a clause, if it exists in his deal.

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In some cases, networks many opt to keep paying talent the value of their deal while keeping them off the air. This can be a strategic move to avoid letting competitor hire the personality for their own programming. Many TV contracts also have non-compete clauses that bar talent from working in a similar job for a set amount of time after departing another. 

This effectively means a benched employee can’t jump to another network unless they negotiate an exit deal with their employer, which would typically end in a payout less than any remaining value on a contract.

Again, it’s not clear if this is what happened to Lemon, but his latest efforts to launch a show on X suggest that he’s been freed from at least some of his obligations to CNN. Normally an anchor contract would prohibit talent from producing their own show without the network’s approval and, in some cases, involvement.