Don Lemon Biography – Don Lemon Wiki
Don Lemon is an American television journalist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he anchored weekend news programs on local television stations in Alabama and Pennsylvania during his early days as a journalist. He worked with CNN as a correspondent from 2006 until May 2021 when he left the media house. Lemon then worked as a news correspondent for NBC on its programming, such as Today and NBC Nightly News. He later became known as the host of CNN Tonight starting in 2014. He is also a recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award and three regional Emmy Awards. He went to study at Baker High School, in the town of Baker in East Baton Rouge Parish. He was voted class president during his senior year. Lemon proceeded to Louisiana State University and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1996, majoring in broadcast journalism. While at Brooklyn College, he was an intern at WNYW. He worked for Fox News affiliates in St. Louis and Chicago for several years and was a correspondent for NBC affiliates in Philadelphia and Chicago.
At the start of his career, Lemon worked for WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama as a weekend news anchor and for WCAU in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also did anchoring and investigative reports for KTVI in St. Louis Missouri. He reported for NBC News’s New York City operations, including working as a correspondent for both Today and NBC Nightly News; and as an anchor on Weekend Today and programs on MSNBC. In 2003, he started working at NBC-owned and operated station WMAQ-TV (5 in Chicago) and was a reporter and local news co-anchor. He won three Emmys for local reporting while at WMAQ. He became part of CNN in September 2006. He has been outspoken in his work at CNN, criticizing the state of cable news and questioning the network publicly. He has also voiced strong opinions on ways that the African American community can improve their lives, which has caused some controversy. Since 2014, he has also co-hosted CNN’s New Year’s Eve special from New Orleans with Brooke Baldwin. In a much-reported broadcast in January 2018, he introduced his broadcast with, “This is CNN Tonight, I’m Don Lemon. The president of the United States is racist.” His outspoken criticism of the Trump administration and accusations of racism against President Trump has made Lemon a target of Trump and white supremacists. In October 2018, during an on-air discussion about the migrant caravan, he received criticism from conservatives for stating “we have to stop demonizing people and realize that the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them. There is no travel ban on them.”
In his career, he has managed to garner numerous awards and honors to his name. In 2002, he won an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the capture of the D.C. area sniper, and other awards for reports on Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, he earned three Chicago / Midwest Emmy Awards–one for a business feature about Craigslist real estate listings, “Life on Craigslist,” and two for reporting on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, “Journey to Africa”–while reporting for WMAQ-TV in Chicago. He was voted as one of the 150 most influential African Americans by Ebony magazine in 2009. In 2014, Advocate listed him as one of the publication’s 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media. In 2014, David Uberti of the Columbia Journalism Review named him in a list of worst journalism of the year for several reporting gaffes throughout the year. In December 2016, he was honored with a Native Son Award, named after James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son (1955), recognizing and “encourage the increased visibility and impact of black gay men in society”. In 2017, Out named him on its Power 50 list of “the most influential LGBTQ people in the USA.” In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York, an event widely considered a watershed moment in the modern LGBTQ rights movement, Queerty named him one of the Pride50 “trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance, and dignity for all queer people”.
In May 2021, it was announced that Lemon, along with CNN fellow journalist Chris Cuomo, would launch a podcast named “The Handoff”. The audio show will center around “politics and personal” and will be teleprompter-free. On May 14, 2021, at the end of that edition of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, the host announced: “So, earlier I told you I had an announcement, and I do. It’s been really, really great. This is the last night that we’ll be CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. So I appreciate all the years of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, but changes are coming, and I will fill you in”.
Don Lemon Age
He was born and named Donald Carlton Lemon on March 1, 1966, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States.
Don Lemon Partner
He is engaged to his partner, Tim Malone. Tim is a real estate agent. The two began dating in 2017 and in 2019 they got engaged. Lemon is a resident of Harlem and has another home in Sag Harbor on Long Island, New York. He is gay and has stated that he has known about his sexuality since the age of five or six.
Don Lemon Parents
His parents are Katherine Marie and Wilmon Lee Richardson. His father was a well-known attorney, who was part of a lawsuit successfully challenging the segregation of public transportation in Baton Rouge. Lemon was born under the surname of his mother’s then-husband, (his step-father) and discovered that Wilmon was his father when he was five.
Don Lemon Sister
On January 31, 2018, Lemon’s sister, L’Tanya “Leisa” Lemon Grimes, died at the age of 58; police concluded that her death was an accidental drowning in a pond while fishing. After being absent for approximately a week, he opened his show on February 6, 2018, by thanking everyone who wished him “prayers and words of encouragement”. He said that conservatives, like Sean Hannity, were among the first to call, which illustrated how they actually respect each other and have good relations, even though they disagree on the issues. He was left behind with his other sibling Yma Lemon.
Don Lemon Height
His formal listed height stands at 6 feet (1.83m) tall.
Don Lemon Leaving CNN
In May 2021, it was announced that Lemon, along with CNN fellow journalist Chris Cuomo, would launch a podcast named “The Handoff”. The audio show will center around “politics and personal” and will be teleprompter-free. On May 14, 2021, at the end of that edition of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, the host announced: “So, earlier I told you I had an announcement, and I do. It’s been really, really great. This is the last night that we’ll be CNN Tonight with Don Lemon. So I appreciate all the years of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, but changes are coming, and I will fill you in”.
Don Lemon Instagram
He is on Instagram as @donlemoncnn.
