Ex-CNN star Lemon sues Musk over cancelled X show

Former CNN star presenter Don Lemon has sued multi-billionaire Elon Musk and his social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, over the cancellation of a content deal.

The lawsuit alleges that Mr Musk and his company unfairly terminated a partnership with Mr Lemon and refused to pay him after using his name to promote the social media platform with advertisers.

BBC News has contacted X for comment about the lawsuit.

Earlier this year, X reached deals with Mr Lemon, former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and sports radio presenter Jim Rome, as it tries to bring advertisers back to the platform after a series of controversies.

The lawsuit, filed in the California Superior Court in San Francisco alleges X had agreed to pay Mr Lemon $1.5m (£881,000), along with a share of advertising revenue generated by his content.

It also claims Mr Musk and X used "false promises and representations” to help persuade Mr Lemon to agree to the partnership only to cancel it after he had spent thousands of dollars on creating the show.

However, the deal which would have seen The Don Lemon Show appearing on X collapsed abruptly in March after the recording of the first episode, which featured an interview with Mr Musk.

In a post on X shortly after the deal fell through, Mr Musk said Mr Lemon's approach “was basically just 'CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.”

During the interview, which was recorded at Tesla's headquarters in Texas, Mr Lemon asked Mr Musk about his use of the drug ketamine, as well as the increase of hate speech on X.

Mr Lemon had been with CNN for 17 years when he was fired in April 2023.

The network made the decision after Mr Lemon made on-air comments about then Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley being past her prime.