Don Lemon Couldn’t Keep It Together When Announcing He’s ‘Openly Black’ On CNN

Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo are trying their best to have fun with their time on CNN despite the new news being, well, troubling in recent weeks. The co-hosts are at the helm of the network’s late night coverage of all things political, and lately that’s meant Donald Trump inciting a coup attempt and lots of nonsense about the election.

But on Friday, they couldn’t help but make reference to a bit of viral news Lemon himself was part of. Though it didn’t take long before team fell into laughter. On Friday, a media report about CNN’s coverage of the election made a bizarre reference to Lemon as “openly Black.” He is, of course, a Black man, but it’s a weird phrasing to equate being Black to, say, a sexual orientation or religious belief.

As Lemon’s name and the phrase “openly Black” trended on Twitter, he couldn’t help but notice and make it clear the incident would be mentioned on the show on Saturday.

And sure enough, Lemon said he had an “announcement” to make on the show on Friday.

It’s the very impressed “wow” from Cuomo that breaks Lemon, and the rest of the segment is filled with laughter. Cuomo is really the perfect comedic foil here, starting with the assurance that whatever he says on live national television would be “just between us” and the “I don’t know what to say” to carry the moment while Lemon composes himself.

Later on Twitter, Lemon certainly had his fun with the hashtag #openlyblack as well.

All jokes aside, though, it does seem like Lemon has something more he wants to say about the incident and plans to do so after the weekend.