Comedian Stephen Colbert slammed CNN host Don Lemon on Thursday for wearing a hoodie with sweatpants and a jacket on his new morning show.
During his Thursday night show, the prankster shared a picture of Lemon in the outfit he wore on air earlier in the day for his new CNN appearance, This Morning, and said, “As a wise man once said, ‘What the heck ” * is this?”
Colbert then continued to poke fun at Lemon, telling him he had something to explain – which Lemon tried to do on his morning show the next day.
He revealed his new CNN bosses asked him to be more casual when he took over the network’s morning show, which was advertised as “another morning show” in a promo featuring Lemon in a turtleneck.
Late-night host Stephen Colbert took time off his show on Thursday night to poke fun at CNN host Don Lemon’s outfit earlier in the day
Lemon, 56, was spotted earlier in the day on his new morning show in a gray hoodie with gray sweatpants and a black jacket
On his Thursday night Late Show, Colbert decided to poke fun at Lemon’s outfit choice, despite calling him a “dear, dear friend.”
“I was watching this morning and was a bit surprised because I wasn’t expecting that,” Colbert said, before directing his crew to share a picture of Lemon in the very casual outfit.
“I know they want to add some comedy to CNN,” the comedian continued, referring to a suggestion to add a late-night show to the network, “and it’s hilarious.”
‘But how do you report the news in this outfit? How do you talk about tragedy when you wear that because what could be more tragic than that look he had this morning,” Colbert scoffed.
He then went on to compare Lemon’s appearance to “a high school teacher who went for a jog but then got a little hungry and stopped at a restaurant.
“But it was too nice a restaurant and they said, ‘Excuse me sir, you have to wear a jacket.’ Then he stole a Guys and Dolls jacket,” joked Colbert, referring to a musical set in the 1950s.
Finally he said, “Don, you have a lot to answer for.”
To his credit, Lemon accepted the challenge on CNN This Morning the next day, describing his off-duty attire as a Rorschach test of people seeing what they want to see.
Lemon responded to the criticism on the morning show the next day
He explained that when he took over the morning show, CNN executives wanted him to “feel relaxed and more comfortable and kind of engaged with what’s going on in the world.”
“So look, I love Stephen Colbert,” the embattled CNN host began.
But he said: “It was interesting, I didn’t expect that reaction.
“It was sort of a Rorschach test for me in that outfit,” he said as he tried to defend the style.
“First of all, it’s not a sweatshirt or whatever,” Lemon claimed. “It’s a sweater with a hood.”
At that point, Lemon revealed that when he took the job as CNN This Morning co-host, his bosses asked him to “relax and be more comfortable and kind of deal with what’s going on in the world.” “.
“Right now, people don’t wear suits that much,” he said, after showing a montage of him in different colored suits over the years. “A lot has changed since the pandemic, right?
“So I thought it was interesting that there was a reaction like that because I got a lot of negative reactions online.”
Lemon then reached out to his co-host Kaitlinn Collins and said he now understands what it must be like to be a woman when they receive comments about their skirt, hair or whatever.
“Men are never scrutinized that closely,” he said, before turning directly to Colbert and saying, “I think so [you should] Have fun with comedy.
“I think if Barack Obama can be criticized for a brown suit, if Volodomyr Zelensky can fight a war in a hoodie, if Trayvon Martin can start a revolution in a hoodie, then Don Lemon could break the news in a hoodie,” said he claims.
“So Stephen I love you, I’m glad you started this conversation but it’s like a Rorschach test.”
Don Lemon had previously appeared in a turtleneck with a button over it for a promotion for the new morning show
Lemon previously vowed to show viewers of the new morning show a “younger, funnier” version of himself, a stark contrast to the hardliners Americans were used to.
But in an ad for the new show, Collins tells both Lemon, 56, and co-host Poppy Harlow, 40, that she was “a freshman” when they started at CNN in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
‘High school, college?’ asks Harlow.
“Actually, I think it was eighth grade,” Collins, 30, replies to the shock of her older co-hosts.
The exchange is then followed by a montage of dialogue between the future morning presenters, highlighting their philosophy for the show.
“A morning show is like when people go to a diner,” says Lemon. “You come in and get as much news as you can, then start your day.”
The on-screen text continues throughout the promotion, highlighting every part of the trio’s conversation – when at one point “conversation” is superimposed over the video.
“People’s time is so valuable that if they spend 15 minutes watching the news, it’s a lot of time,” says Collins.
“We need to cover more about what’s happening across America,” Harlow adds, to which she responds shortly afterwards, “People just want to be heard.”
“It’s really all about the conversation,” Lemon concluded.
“We are the place for accuracy and we are the place for context.”
Lemon promised that every morning a “younger, funnier” Don Lemon — unlike what people are used to — will show up on the network
Lemon previously said the show will be a more authentic version of him and his style
The move to replace “New Day” and move Lemon from primetime was one of new CEO Chris Licht’s key decisions as he seeks to steer the outlet away from “opinion-based partisan news” and anchors slamming Conservatives and the GOP.
Lemon, a major critic of former President Trump and Republicans, has previously called Trump “the biggest snowflake of them all” after the Jan. 6, 2021, raid on the White House.
He has also been widely open about voter fraud following the 2020 presidential election, claiming that Trump and Republicans are feeding “bullsh**t” to GOP supporters.
Lemon added to his criticism of networks that continue to cover Trump even though he is not the active president.
“It was frustrating to say the least, not that I didn’t commit to doing it in prime time. But after Donald Trump was no longer president and we had a war in Ukraine, our approach to what we were doing in primetime changed, which didn’t start every night with a monologue about Donald Trump and how bad he was and how awful he was Things were in the country,’ he said.
“So I was ready to move on, and I think the audience is ready to move on, too,” Lemon continued.
He has worked 16 of his 40 years in journalism at CNN and co-hosted the 2020 Democratic presidential debate.
Poppy Harlow, left, Don Lemon (centre) and Katilan Collins host the unsuccessful morning show
But when CNN This Morning aired in November, the show drew fewer than 390,000 viewers.
Those numbers pale in comparison to the show’s competition, including MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” which drew 793,000 viewers. “FOX and Friends” saw 1.5 million viewers.
“CNN This Morning” also averaged 50,000 fewer viewers than “New Day,” with just 71,000 viewers considering the network’s demographic.
During its last show, “New Day” drew just over 350,000 visitors. That number still saw just 75,000 from the network’s main demographic of adults aged 25 to 54.
On November 1, “Morning Joe” had 114,000 in the same category and “FOX and Friends” saw 236,000.
Before the show lost viewers en masse, the show averaged 413,000 viewers in 2022.