Culture

A Messy Don Lemon Got Real About Relationships, Called 2016 ‘Awful,’ And Proposed To Brooke Baldwin On TV

Poor Holiday Don Lemon. He got his ear pierced on live TV but was still eclipsed by Mariah Carey’s trainwreck performance on New Year’s Eve. You gotta feel for the guy, if only because he aimed for magnificent revelry only to deliver second-place antics on the the drunkest U.S. holiday. In the above video, Lemon can be heard rambling for ages about his love life (on CNN) while Brooke Baldwin nodded along:

“I live my life to the fullest. The thing is, I need a little more balance in work-life. I may be open to a relationship this year, I wasn’t before … actually being available to be in a relationship …. I’m a bad person to date. I’m not selfish, but I’m very self-centered … yeah, I’m not going to be as self-centered. I don’t care what people think about me. I do what I want because it’s my life.”

No one’s quite sure whether or not Lemon was sauced. He appeared to take a shot before getting pierced, but any reputable piercing or tattoo artist would never do their thing on someone who’s been drinking. TV magic, y’all.

In the below video, things got even messier. After midnight hits in NOLA, Lemon and Brooke briefly celebrate for the cameras. Then at about 1:20, Lemon states, “2016 was awful” before his mic loses sound and jazz starts playing. Later on after the bubbly pours, Lemon and Baldwin talk to a newly engaged couple from Utah. In the last moments of this video Lemon asks, “Brooke, will you marry me?” And we never hear her answer.

https://youtu.be/XdR1NZ3xl1Y

Mediaite poses the theory that CNN cut Lemon’s mic after the “awful” bit, although this may have simply been a technical difficulty. After all, Lemon was allowed to keep talking and ask for Baldwin’s hand in marriage, which appears to be the point where his televised fun ended (and old footage of Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin began to air).

Earlier in the evening, Lemon danced on a tabletop while waving a napkin.

Of course, social media lived vicariously through the certain embarrassment that Lemon will feel in the morning:

https://twitter.com/PeterPlab/status/815378046794354689

https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/815428389821616128
https://twitter.com/MsH805/status/815430921948016640

Could Lemon’s regret be worse than Anderson Cooper’s humiliation at being wrapped in aluminum foil by Kathy Griffin? Yes.

Baldwin and Lemon’s own social media posts may have predicted the mayhem to come. Hopefully, someone left Lemon a few aspirin because his head must hurt like crazy this morning.