Last week, Kaitlan Collins and Don Lemon got into a heated argument on CNN This Morning, and fans are starting to detect a pattern. Many people uploaded a clip from the Thursday morning show in which Lemon was trying to read an article about Brittney Griner but Collins was trying to cut him off. The hosts began to talk over one another as a result, and the crowd was divided as to who was at fault.
Lemon was reading the most recent information of Griner’s return to the United States after reading an article from a correspondent who had been on the scene on Thursday morning. Lemon looked down at his notes as he seemed to be working through a predefined number of facts before moving on to the next narrative, while Collins seemed to be trying to make the talk more conversational.
Viewers disagreed on whether Collins should have abandoned up after recognizing Lemon’s tone or whether Lemon should have accepted Collins’ attempt at a give-and-take. In any event, social media users bemoaned the absence of “chemistry” on this young morning show.
Evidently, that was not the end of the Thursday event. According to insiders, Lemon took Friday off from work and left Collins and Poppy Harlow to broadcast a segment about the wider issues hurting CNN behind the scenes without him. Some at the studio thought Lemon took the day off because he didn’t want to get into another argument after his heated discussion with Collins the day before.
@CNNThisMorning ❤️ @donlemon & ❤️ @kaitlancollins! But now that Don is a co-host, he needs to adjust to sharing the space. No more of this! Can someone please mansplain this to him? He has interrupted the very capable females co-hosts many times this morning. #manterruption pic.twitter.com/cVuNdXaFuN
— Christine Denson (@ChrisDenso) December 8, 2022
For what it’s worth, other individuals thought Lemon simply took the day off since he was worn out from his travels. He had attended the White House Christmas dinner in Washington, D.C. the previous evening, so he had not had much time to get back and forth. In either event, his absence was noticeable.
Lemon and Collins had done similar things to each other in the past. Earlier this month on television, the two appeared to be in a real debate as they talked about the pay gap between men and women who play professional soccer. At the time, viewers criticized Lemon for what they saw as misogyny, and many people now think that he was disrespectful to Collins as well.
The Puck News piece makes assumptions about CNN’s future and about Lemon’s perspective at this point in his career. Other network experiments, like CNN This Morning, don’t seem to be helping the network’s problems with low ratings and a lack of public trust. Collins and Lemon have not yet addressed their perceived awkwardness on air in the media.
