CNN anchor Don Lemon had quite the New Year’s Eve.
Lemon, who was reporting for CNN on the night’s festivities at the Spotted Cat in New Orleans with Brooke Baldwin, rang in the New Year by taking shots on live TV, getting his ear pierced, admitting to viewers he was “lit” (a slang term for drunk), and discussing his love life.
The network also reportedly cut Lemon’s mic after he started saying, “2016 was awful” just after the countdown to midnight.
The night began with Lemon showing the cameras that he was drinking a beer before taking a shot three hours before midnight (“This is way too early to start this!” Baldwin playfully insisted) — and it didn’t stop there. At one point, he served liquor to a couple from behind the bar; during another segment, Baldwin told him, “The tequila is like, emitting from your pores.”
He also at one point admitted to his inebriated state, adding that he didn’t really care what people were saying about him.
“People are saying that I’m lit. Yeah, I’m lit. Who cares? New Orleans is lit,” he said to the camera.
The network also appeared to cut his microphone after he started to say how rotten he thought the year 2016 was.
He also got a bit personal, telling Baldwin that he was reevaluating his love life and what he wanted in 2017.
“I need a little more balance in work-life. I may be open to a relationship this year. I wasn’t before,” he said, later admitting, “I’m a bad person to date.” (Lemon publicly came out several years ago.)
“Are we going there right now?” interjected a fairly stunned Baldwin.
“I’m not going to be as self-centered,” he vowed before adding, “I live my life to the fullest. I don’t care what people think about me. I do what I want because it’s my life.”
That you sure do, Don. That you sure do.