Don Lemon filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and X today over the cancellation of a partnership on the platform.
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Lemon was to host exclusive content on X as he launched a new show earlier this year, but Musk abruptly canceled the partnership after he did a sometimes contentious sit down interview with the former CNN host. According to the complaint, filed in Superior Court in San Francisco, Musk sent a text to Lemon’s agent with the words, “contract is canceled.”
“This case is straightforward. X executives used Don to prop up their advertising sales pitch, then canceled their partnership and dragged Don’s name through the mud,” Lemon’s attorney, Carney Shegerian, said in a statement. “You don’t have to be a genius to see the fraud, negligence, and reputational damage here.”
Read Don Lemon’s lawsuit against Elon Musk.
The lawsuit claims that “contrary to the promises and representations made to Lemon, once Defendants were enriched and gained the benefits of using Lemon’s name, likeness, identity, and reputation, they reneged on their express agreement with Lemon and have failed to compensate him, citing to false pretenses for their breach of the partnership agreement. This breach came after Lemon spent considerable time, effort, and resources in creating exclusive content for” X.
A spokesperson for X did not return a request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Lemon initially met with X CEO Linda Yaccarino and Brett Weitz, head of content, talent and brand sales, in December, 2023, where they assured him that he had X’s “full support,” that he would have “full authority” over his work and that the platform would not interfere.
“On the doorstep of a new year and an epic partnership I just wanted to reach out and assure you of my
personal commitment. You are an incredible talent and X will make sure you have the global platform you deserve,” Yaccarino wrote to Lemon on December 31, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, X represented to Lemon that the deal would be for one year, “if he agreed to provide Defendants exclusive rights to specific video content for a 24-hour period before it could be dispersed to other platforms: (1) one piece of long-form video content (that is not breaking news) per week; and (2) ten pieces of short-form video content per month.”
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In return, Lemon was to receive $1.5 million, as well as a number of other incentives, including the option to renew two times at the same terms, 60% of the gross revenue from the programmatic advertising generated by the content, and “performance threshold” payments based on followers reached, according to the lawsuit.
Lemon claims in the lawsuit that he was then “rushed” into agreeing to the partnership deal, and was informed that it would be withdrawn unless he attended the CES conference in January and announced it on X the same day, a move meant to entice advertisers. With that, and his “knowledge of Yaccarino’s reputation as a successful media executive, Lemon agreed to enter into the exclusive partnership deal.”
Lemon interviewed Musk on March 8, but a day later Musk informed Lemon’s agent that the deal was off, with the “contract is canceled.”
According to the lawsuit, “Close to this time, Weitz spoke with Lemon by phone and told Lemon that Defendants were not going to pay him or follow through with the promises and representations made to him because there was no signed agreement, despite Musk previously representing to Lemon that there would be no need for a formal written agreement or to ‘fill out paperwork.'”
But Lemon’s lawsuit claims that there was an “express agreement.” They “claimed that they never entered into a partnership deal with Lemon, which demonstrates the fraudulent nature of Defendants’ promises and representations in that they had already entered into an express agreement with Lemon
and were instead violating that partnership. As a result, Defendants have provided false and inconsistent reasons for refusing to pay Lemon that completely contradicts what Musk told Lemon’s agent in his text message.”
The lawsuit claims fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of express contract and misappropriation of name and likeness, among other things. It seeks unspecified damages.
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