Don Lemon was fired again — even before the debut of his new show on X.
Elon Musk abruptly canceled “The Don Lemon Show” hours after sitting down for an interview with the canned CNN anchor that was supposed to serve as his premiere episode on the platform, Lemon said Wednesday.
Lemon had taped the sitdown with the billionaire owner of X, SpaceX and Tesla on Friday.
“Elon Musk has canceled the partnership I had with X,” Lemon said in a statement posted to the social media site.
“There were no restrictions on the interview that he willingly agreed to, and my questions were respectful and wide ranging, covering everything from SpaceX to the presidential election. We had a good conversation. Clearly, he felt differently.”
Musk, who was touring a Tesla plant in Germany on Wednesday, has not commented.
The first episode was scheduled to stream on X on Monday. Lemon said it will still air on YouTube.
A source with knowledge of the interview told The Post that Musk was “underwhelmed” after it concluded and realized “how bad it was.”
“Don was underwhelming, unprepared and dull,” the source said, noting that Lemon didn’t ask any edgy or interesting questions.
“He didn’t ask Musk about (ex-girlfriend) Amber Heard. Elon probably would have liked it,” the source said.
Even worse, according to the source, Lemon worked with a barebones staff that included his fiance — not the big team the former anchor had at CNN.
“He was unpolished. He didn’t have producers in his ear. Jeff Zucker used to be in his ear and he would repeat back everything he was told,” the source said.
Musk had recruited Lemon in January as part of an effort to attract more left-leaning voices to the site. He was slated to tape three, 30-minute episodes a week before the apparent rift.
In his statement, Lemon accused Musk of reneging on his commitment to free speech and to “amplifying more diverse voices on their platform.”
Lemon said that Musk gave him his “full support” and that he “took Elon and his management team’s word that they…were interested in working directly with new and diverse voices.”
“His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me,” Lemon said in his statement.
A post by X’s business account said: “X is a platform that champions free speech, and we’re proud to provide an open environment for diverse voices and perspectives. The Don Lemon Show is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work. However, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.”
In a separate video Lemon posted to X, he said: “I thought the first person [to] interview, no-brainer, Elon Musk, the man who calls himself a free speech absolutist. But apparently, free-speech absolutism doesn’t apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me.”
Veteran tech reporter Kara Swisher, who has been highly critical of Musk, wrote on her X social media page that the falling out between Lemon and the tech titan was due in part to “questions about his ketamine use.”
Lemon apparently quizzed Musk about recent reports in The Wall Street Journal which cited sources as saying that the he has used illicit drugs at social events, including acid, magic mushrooms and ketamine.
Musk, 52, has reportedly been microdosing on ketamine to treat depression.
Lemon’s deal with X came just months after he was unceremoniously fired from his ratings-challenged morning show at CNN.
Lemon and CNN parted ways after a 17-year stay at the network, where executives reportedly soured on the anchor’s on-screen and off-screen behavior toward colleagues.
Last year, Lemon was put on hiatus after he said during a broadcast of “CNN This Morning” that Nikki Haley, who at the time was running for the GOP nomination for president, was “not in her prime” at age 51.
Lemon also had backstage run-ins with staffers and on-air talent, including co-anchor Kaitlin Collins, as The Post previously reported.