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David Zaslav faced a dilemma. Research showed him that multiple CNN personalities had given his recently acquired news network too far a leftward bend. Yet acting on that data and axing some of those figures could stain the tenure of Chris Licht, CNN’s newly hired CEO, in its infancy.
So to protect one of those key personalities, Licht did what anyone would do with a controversial star: He moved Don Lemon to mornings. That lasted five months before Lemon was shown the door—at Zaslav’s behest.
A new New York Times profile of Zaslav’s handling of CNN for nearly two years shed new light on how the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO navigated the network’s often tumultuous relationship with Lemon, a CNN stalwart known for his fiery opinions and who long appeared across the network’s programming, including in primetime and New Year’s Eve. What was once a social, friendly relationship between the two masked, according to the Times, a desire by Zaslav to see Lemon removed from the air.