Elon Musk sued by Don Lemon over cancelled X deal, alleging billionaire withheld contract payments

Don Lemon claimed in the lawsuit filed that he was promised $1.5 million for a one-year contract.

Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk for fraud, claiming he is owed money from his now-canceled talk show on X, which ended after just one contentious interview with the tech billionaire.

The former CNN anchor, 58, alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday in the Superior Court of California, and obtained by Page Six, that he was promised $1.5 million for a one-year contract.

According to the complaint, Lemon was to receive $200,000 upfront, with the possibility to renew the deal twice under the same terms, and receive 60 percent of gross ad revenue.

Lemon also claimed the agreement included $500,000 in advertising credits on X and thousands of dollars in "performance" bonuses based on the number of followers he gained.

In January, Lemon announced he would have his own show on the social media platform after being fired from CNN following several scandals at the network.

Two months later, Musk appeared as Lemon's first guest, but the interview quickly went awry when Lemon began questioning the X owner on controversial issues, such as advertisers boycotting the platform due to a lack of censorship that resulted in their content appearing alongside hate speech.

“Choose your question carefully, there’s five minutes left,” Musk, 53, warned the TV host at one point.

Before the interview even aired, the Tesla CEO canceled the show, announcing on X at the time, “We reserve 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.”

He called “The Don Lemon Show” on X “CNN, but on social media” and added, “Instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just [former CNN president] Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so it lacked authenticity.”