Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has filed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and his social media company X, previously known as Twitter. Lemon's legal action claims that Musk and X unjustly ended their agreement and failed to compensate him, despite leveraging his name to attract advertisers to the platform.

The lawsuit, submitted to the California Superior Court in San Francisco, accuses Musk and X of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and unauthorized use of Lemon's name and likeness. According to Lemon's legal team, Shegerian & Associates, the agreement included a $1.5 million payment and a share of advertising revenue from content featuring Lemon. "The lawsuit asserts that X made misleading promises to secure Lemon's participation, only to cancel the project after he had invested significantly in its production.

The planned show, "The Don Lemon Show," was supposed to debut on X but fell apart in March following the recording of its inaugural episode, which included an interview with Musk. Musk later criticized the show’s concept on X, suggesting that it was merely a replication of CNN’s format and thus doomed to fail.

Lemon had been a CNN fixture for 17 years until his dismissal in April 2023 after controversial remarks about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Following his departure, Musk approached Lemon on X in an effort to revitalize the platform’s advertising appeal, which had suffered due to various controversies since Musk's acquisition in 2022.

In related news, X has been grappling with advertiser pullbacks, including a recent withdrawal by Paris Hilton’s entertainment firm, 11:11 Media, which had previously partnered with X but later pulled its campaign amid ongoing concerns about the platform's content moderation practices.