NEWSDon Lemon Hardly Avoided Former Boss Chris Licht at 'Mediaite' Anniversary Party After Ex-CNN CEO Fired Him From the Network
Mediaite’s 15th anniversary party turned into quite the shake up for CNN's past and present employees.
During the Wednesday, May 15, event, CNN’s former CEO Chris Licht "spoke to a few" current CNN staffers, however, he narrowly missed an interaction with ex-anchor Don Lemon after infamously firing him before also being given the boot by Warner Bros. Discovery last year, an eyewitness spilled to a news publication.
Don Lemon narrowly missed an interaction with his former boss Chris Licht and Mediaite's 15th anniversary party.
"Some of CNN’s on-air talent were less excited to see him and studiously avoided him," an attendee at the bash — hosted by Mediaite founder Dan Abrams and editor-in-chief Aidan McLaughlin — told the news outlet of the former boss man.
Licht had quite the tumultuous reign as CNN's CEO, with the former executive producer of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert leaving the network in June 2023 after a brief 13-month run as chairman and boss.
Chris Licht fired Don Lemon from CNN in April 2023.
Prior to being ousted from the network, Licht axed Lemon from his long-running role as an anchor at CNN after the television personality faced backlash for his allegedly "sexist" comments about former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
Aside from a potentially awkward and hostile run-in between Lemon and Licht, "cross-network comity was at an all-time high!" the eyewitness dished, as another spy noted Joe Scarborough and Steve Doocy cordially interacted with one another in a brief truce between MSNBC and Fox News.
Don Lemon was an anchor at CNN for 17 years before he was fired last year.
"Joe grabbed him and pulled him over to the step-and-repeat for a photo as soon as he saw him," the second spy confessed, as they mentioned Doocy also mingled and posed for photos with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Additionally, Megyn Kelly chatted with former Fox colleague Julie Banderas, while Bill O'Reilly spoke to CNN’s news anchor crew.
Chris Licht had a brief 13-month fun as chairman and CEO of CNN.
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Former Fox heavyweight Geraldo Rivera was seen spending time with The View panelist Sunny Hostin and CNN’s Jim Acosta.
Ben Sherwood, Pat Kiernan, Ari Melber, Abby Phillip, Andrew Ross Sorkin, John Berman and Elie Honig were also among those hanging out at the journalist-filled function.
Following the event, Kelly took to Instagram with a snap from the seemingly enjoyable evening.
"Such a fun night at the annual @Mediaite party in NYC w/@douglas_brunt and many old news pals," she captioned her post, which featured a picture of Kelly and her husband, Douglas Brunt, standing and smiling in front of a photo backdrop.
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Page Six spoke to eyewitnesses about Mediaite's anniverary party.
