Don Lemon Says Byron Allen Saw His Post-CNN Future Before He Did

After Don Lemon was pushed out at CNN, Byron Allen told him his time off-air wasn’t just a pause—it was part of the playbook.

Appearing on The Don Lemon Show, Allen listened as Lemon recalled a private meeting the two had after Lemon’s CNN exit, when the media mogul warned him that being kept off television would chip away at his value in the business.

“You told me… this is what they’re trying to do to you,” Lemon said. “They want to keep you off the air because the longer you’re off the air your value goes down, and this is how they do it.”

Lemon said Allen also urged him to think bigger than simply finding his next television job.

“I don’t know if you realize it or not, Don,” Lemon recalled Allen telling him, “but you have the opportunity to build something that’s even bigger… to build it in your own way. It’s going to be different. It’s not going to be easy.”

Lemon told Allen he was “100% right.”

The moment came during a Juneteenth-themed interview largely centered on Black ownership, media power, and Allen’s long-running argument that representation matters most when it comes with control of the business behind the camera.

“Ownership determines who gets paid, who gets promoted, who gets access, and whose stories get told,” Allen said.

The comedian-turned-media mogul made a similar case about late night, arguing that ownership was the only way for him to enter a time slot the traditional broadcast networks have never handed to a Black host.

“In a hundred years, we’ve never had a Black person at 11:35 on ABC, NBC, CBS,” he said. “Arsenio [Hall], who’s a friend and I love, he was syndicated. I always felt like he should have been on the network.”

He added: “We had our first Black president before we had our first Black host at 11:35. And I had to buy the time period.”

That last part was literal. Allen has said he is paying CBS $15 million a year to air Comics Unleashed in the 11:35 p.m. slot formerly occupied by Stephen Colbert, with his company offsetting the time-buy and production costs by selling the advertising itself.