The comedian reminded CNN of a difficult part of his past Tuesday night when New Year’s Eve hosts Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen offered him an appearance.
“Oh no. No, I don’t. The last black man who drank on this network got fired,” said Roy Wood Jr., who is known for appearing on the “Daily Show.” “I’ll keep it with water for now. I need some stability.”
Wood appears to have been referring to former host Don Lemon, who was part of the network’s New Year’s Eve specials during his broadcast and drank during the coverage. Colleagues from Times Square Michael Ian Black and Amber Ruffin did not refuse the offer to film.
Wood co-hosts CNN’s weekly Saturday comedy quiz show, “Got News for You,” along with Black and Ruffin.
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Comedian Roy Wood Jr. (ABC)
Lemon got fired by CNN in 2023 after a series of controversies and problems at the newly launched AM show “CNN This Morning.”
The left-leaning host was ousted from his primetime slot to become part of a three-person anchor team at then-CEO Chris Licht’s revamped morning program, but the show never got off the ground.
Lemon memorably angered network colleagues in 2023 when he proposed to Nikki Haley, then 51, she was no longer “in her prime”.. At the time, Haley was forthcoming about concerns about the age of President Biden, who a year later was kicked out of the race by members of his own party.
Lemon lasted two more months before Licht dumped him. Licht himself was shown the door in June of that year.
Lemon recently made media headlines with his blistering attack on Donald Trump supporters amid a split among part of his base over H-1B visas.
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Don Lemon recently lashed out at Donald Trump supporters. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuff LLC)
“You’re co-opted because you’re in a fucking cult and you don’t even realize it because you have a stupid MAGA brain and you don’t realize it,” he said. “How dumb and stupid are you?”
He stood by his comments on his YouTube show on Tuesday, saying his critics were “assholes”.
“I don’t mean all Trump supporters,” Lemon said. “I’m talking to people with a MAGA brain who will say and do anything to make excuses for any behavior by Donald Trump, any bad behavior that constitutes the MAGA movement.”
He continued, “So I stand by my words! And if you don’t like what I said, then too bad… I don’t care!”
Lemon also called out the “hypocrisy” of Trump supporters who attacked him for his language while defending their “cult leader.”
“You’ve messed this up. You have higher expectations of me, an independent journalist, a former cable news anchor, than a person sitting in the Oval Office. Because his mouth is worse than mine,” Lemon said.
Last month, Lemon also attacked Time Magazine for choosing Trump as its own Person of the yearcalling the choice a “joke”.
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Former CNN anchor Don Lemon during a guest appearance on MSNBC last year. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
“If they wanted to make someone person of the year, I don’t know, they could have done it with any person. They could have done it with someone who actually stood up for democracy, who stands up for democracy in the country,” Lemon said.
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Fox News Digital’s Kendall Tietz, Brian Flood and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
