Is planting misleading innuendo about oneself a good tool to sell the services of an information provider? In what other product category does one openly debase the quality as a means of gathering attention?

Tucker Carlson, whose viewership is more than 4 times that of Don Lemon’s, likes to characterize the CNN host as stupid. That label certainly applies to the publicity stunt trick Lemon pulled on Friday night:

“CNN Tonight” anchor Don Lemon announced Friday that “this will be the last night” of the show he’s hosted since 2014 — only to clarify in a later Twitter video that he was not leaving the network.

Lemon shocked viewers by ending his news show Friday with a closing on-air segment in which he suddenly revealed the end of his program on the network.

“It’s been really, really great. This is the last night that will be ‘CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.'” he said. “So, I appreciate all the years of ‘CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,’ but changes are coming, and I will fill you in.”

Lemon then segued into a promo for a CNN documentary about Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album, “What’s Going On.”

CNN revealed that it must have been in on the hoax when it then headlined, “CNN viewers panic after Don Lemon's announcement about his show,” as if there are human beings that would panic over losing the ability to view a news commentator whose intellect is so penetrating that he speculated that a missing Malaysian airliner might have gone into a black hole.  If anyone is panicking, it is CNN, which is dealing with a 16% decline in Lemon's ratings year-on-year.

A mere 15 minutes after the stunt puzzled people, Lemon continued the stunt and posted a video to Twitter with another tease, but letting all those panic-stricken viewers that they would not be missing the daily (weekdays) dose of numbskullery at 10 PM Eastern:

Hey everyone. Not what you think. I’m not leaving CNN. Tune in for the handoff on Monday at 10pE and I’ll explain. pic.twitter.com/oOwDferY2i

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) May 15, 2021

Twitter video screengrab

The drawstrong pants are a nice touch, don't you think?

The next morning, he relieved any further anxieties among the mentally crippled who were still worried, by the self-promotion of  “apologizing” for “set[ting] the internet on fire” [as if….]:

Didn’t mean to set the internet on fire. What I said last night was true. CNN Tonight with Don Lemon is no more. I’ll be back on Monday with my newly named show Don Lemon Tonight. See you Monday at 10pE. pic.twitter.com/89GFXULV9m

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) May 15, 2021

This is dumbest publicity stunt since the International House of Pancakes falsely claimed it was changing its name to the International House of Burgers, only to reveal a month later that it was a publicity stunt. But at least IHOP sells food, not information. Lemon was debasing his own product with his misleading innuendo.

Hat tip: Peter Barry Chowka

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