Don Lemon premieres show with contentious Elon Musk X interview: Here's what happened

The first episode of Don Lemon's new show, and his tense interview with Elon Musk, is here.

The former CNN anchor on Monday premiered the debut episode of "The Don Lemon Show," which consists of an hour-long, contentious interview with the Tesla CEO. Last week, Lemon, 58, revealed that after the interview was conducted, Musk, 52, decided to cancel a partnership between his show and X, formerly Twitter.

"Elon Musk has canceled the partnership I had with X, which they announced as part of their public commitment to amplifying more diverse voices on their platform. He informed me of his decision hours after an interview I conducted with him on Friday," Lemon, who was fired by CNN in 2023, said.

X responded that Lemon's show is "welcome to publish its content on X" but that the company reserves the right "to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show." Musk also posted on X that Lemon's "approach was basically just 'CNN, but on social media,' which doesn't work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying."

Lemon says he took show to X after Musk's 'months of begging me'

"We're still here," Lemon declared at the start of the premiere episode of "The Don Lemon Show," clarifying that the show wasn't "canceled" by X since it was never going to be exclusive to the platform.

Don Lemon'sshow canceled by Elon Musk on X, a year after CNN firing

"Yes, after months of begging me, wooing me to offer some exclusive content on his platform, Elon Musk decided to scrap the deal," Lemon said. "But our plan is, and always has been, to release this show everywhere."

Lemon added that he isn't sure what "went wrong" with the interview but challenged Musk to watch it and "tell the world why this isn't what you claim you want on X." The full interview was shared on X and YouTube.

Lemon asks Musk about his ketamine use, hate speech on X

One early contentious moment in the interview came when Lemon asked Musk whether he is "sober" when he posts "controversial stuff" on X. "Almost always, yes," Musk replied. Lemon also questioned Musk on his use of ketamine to treat depression.

"It's pretty private to ask somebody about a medical prescription," Musk replied, saying ketamine is helpful for getting him out of a "negative frame of mind."

Lemon followed up by asking Musk if he ever abuses ketamine. Musk denied doing so and said he takes a "small amount once every other week."

Lemon subsequently grilled Musk on some of his controversial X posts, including claims that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) puts lives at risk by lowering medical standards. Lemon strongly pushed back on this assertion, while Musk maintained that this "could become an issue."

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"The actual evidence and history shows the exact opposite if you look at how minorities are treated by the medical system," Lemon said, adding, "There's no actual evidence of what you're saying."

Lemon and Musk also argued over whether X needs to do more to moderate hate speech on the platform, with the news anchor showing antisemitic posts that remain on X. "From your own content policy, these posts should have been deleted," Lemon said. Musk responded that X deletes posts if they're "illegal" before adding, "So Don, you love censorship."

Following an argument regarding Musk's controversial posts about immigration, Musk told Lemon he doesn't "have to answer questions from reporters" and only agreed to do this interview "because you're on the X platform and you asked for it."

Musk tells Lemon he's 'upsetting me' with question about X

The interview closed on a tense note as Musk warned Lemon he was running out of time and admitted to being upset by one of his final questions. Lemon questioned Musk's statement that advertisers who leave X could kill the company, asking, "Doesn't the buck stop with you?"

Don Lemon'sshow canceled by Elon Musk on X, a year after CNN firing

After Musk took a long pause before responding that he is trying to "preserve freedom of speech in America," Lemon said he is "not trying to get you or anything" before asking, "Why would that question upset you? You seem upset by it. Are you?"

"You are upsetting me because the way you're phrasing questions is not cogent," Musk told him.

Lemon says Musk isn't used to being questioned by someone 'who doesn't look like him'

In an interview with People ahead of the episode, Lemon alleged that Musk is "not used to being held to account" and "not used to having to answer to anyone, especially someone like me who doesn't share his worldview, who doesn't look like him." The journalist also said that although he has "interviewed many world leaders, presidents to convicts," no one "has been more sensitive or touchy than Elon Musk."