Emotional Don Lemon Bids Farewell to CNN’s Prime Time Audience in Final Show: ‘I Hope I Made You Proud’

CNN’s Don Lemon bid an emotional farewell to his audience Friday night after nearly a decade as a prominent face of the network’s prime time lineup.

The host shared a montage of his time behind the desk and out in the field from 10 p.m. to midnight ET over the last eight-and-a-half years. Lemon came to prominence in early 2014 during the vanishing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

In his final prime time show, he aired coverage of the mystery, and a montage of much of his reporting since. Lemon covered elections, political bombshells, riots, mass shootings, scandals, hurricanes and one attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Lemon concluded the video, and he thanked those who shared kind words with him after the death of his sister in 2018. He also thanked the crew members who kept his show going.

“I was not always perfect, because no one is perfect,” he said. “There are immense pressures that come with this job and in particular this time slot at, 10:00 o’clock, when people are going to bed. So sometimes all I could do – I am going to be honest with you – was just smile and just get to the commercial break sometimes.”

He added:

Sometimes, it was exhausting. Because some of the things that we discuss here are so personal and so consuming, all-consuming. So, I hope I made you proud. And I thank you for tuning in all these years. And I hope that you are going to join me in the morning.

So I will simply say good night, and I will see you soon.

“All right, so I’m going to leave, and I am going to go upstairs,” Lemon said. He left the desk, walked up a flight of stairs and sniffled.

“Bye,” he said a final time as he whimpered, fighting back tears.

Lemon will move to mornings on Monday amid a network-wide shakeup that was first announced by network boss Chris Licht last month. He will co-anchor a new show with colleagues Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.

Lemon has been with CNN since 2006, and joined its prime time lineup in 2014. Alisyn Camerota and Laura Coates will anchor from 10 p.m. to midnight – filling the time slot he is vacating.

The duo will follow Jake Tapper, who will take over the 9 p.m. slot currently filled by CNN Tonight. Tapper’s 5 p.m. slot will be filled by an additional hour of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett will remain in their respective time slots for the time-being.

The new lineup will roll out Monday and carry on throughout the midterms. It is unclear what CNN will look like in prime time after the elections.

Watch above, via CNN.