X is launching three new shows on the platform to be hosted by former CNN anchor Don Lemon, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and sports radio commentator Jim Rome.
The social media platform, which has been struggling to retain advertisers ever since Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022, announced the partnerships Tuesday.
Lemon, Gabbard and Rome join ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who launched his show on X last June after parting ways with Fox News.
Conservative pundits and politicians have rallied around Musk over the past year as the tech mogul spread conspiracy theories, including the antisemitic “great replacement” theory linked to shootings in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, New York. He has sued progressive watchdog Media Matters for America, which reported last year that ads from major corporations were running next to antisemitic content on X.
Meanwhile, the European Union opened a probe in December looking into whether X failed to combat disinformation and illegal content on the platform.
X’s announcement Tuesday came just hours after its business handle posted about how “2024 will be transformational” for the platform.
“We will create more original content and bring in more talent with some of the most interesting and engaged people on X,” the company stated in a blog post on the year ahead.
Lemon — who was fired from CNN last year after reports that he mistreated female colleagues, as well as backlash over widely criticized comments he made on air — wrote in a statement on X that he is “back bigger, bolder, freer!”
“The Don Lemon Show,” covering topics across politics, culture, sports and entertainment, will run in 30-minute episodes three times a week, X said.
“I know now more than ever that we need a place for honest debate and discussion without the hall monitors,” Lemon wrote, calling X the “biggest space for free speech in the world.”
Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 because she said she believes it’s “now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness,” also touted the importance of free speech in an X post announcing her new documentary-style show.
“Unfortunately, we live in a time where free speech is under attack,” she said in the video announcement, adding that one way to “defend” free speech is to use it. Her show, she said, will “tell the stories and tell the truth about what’s happening here in our country and around the world, a truth that most often those in power don’t want us to hear.”
Joining X’s new lineup is also Rome, whose show will begin streaming five days a week on the platform after the Super Bowl.
“Totally HYPED to announce my new video programming partnership with X!” he posted Tuesday. “We will be live on X soon and I can’t wait.”
Representatives for X, Lemon, Gabbard and Rome did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
