The rise of the "Lemon Head"

I was at an event in DC this past December featuring progressive influencers and activists discussing the social media landscape in front of a crowd of around a hundred attendees. The panel was talking about some of their favorite new media voices, and one of the speakers proudly referred to herself as a “Lemon Head,” a term she said comes from the community of liberal-leaning news junkies who are big fans of former CNN anchor Don Lemon. I obviously laughed, thinking it was unlikely that any such Don Lemon fandom existed. But I was probably wrong…

He may not be the liberal Joe Rogan, but since leaving CNN in 2023, Don Lemon has built a growing independent media operation centered on his YouTube show—a weekday online program featuring political interviews, news analysis, and his signature anti-MAGA commentary. Aimed at politics obsessives and liberal-leaning viewers who followed him from CNN, The Don Lemon Show publishes twice daily, Monday through Friday.

Now, the Lemon Heads are upset and organizing as their leader was arrested on Friday on trumped-up charges involving his coverage of a protest in Minneapolis. 

So, how big is Lemon’s audience exactly?

Lemon is one of several high-profile TV news figures who have moved into independent media in recent years. Former CNN personalities like Jim Acosta, Roland Martin, Jessica Yellin, and Chris Cillizza all launched their own digital media ventures after leaving the network, as have a dozen others from rival networks. 

On YouTube, he’s been one of the most successful to make the switch, with his channel accumulating over 1.15 million subscribers since early 2024. He has added hundreds of thousands of those subscribers over the past year and now draws tens of millions of views per month, placing him firmly in the upper tier of U.S. political commentary channels and likely surpassing $1 million in annual ad-sharing revenue. Just since Friday, another 150,000 people have subscribed to Lemon’s channel. 

Its no secret how Lemon has been able to grow quickly on the platform: his channel uses the same growth hacking techniques used by a growing cohort of anti-MAGA liberal YouTubers in the vein of Meidas Touch. That means bright yellow headline text in the thumbnails, ALL CAPS titles, and sensational, hyper-partisan topics front and center:   

In addition to YouTube, he also maintains a Substack newsletter with more than 127,000 readers. According to publicly available data on Substack, that includes “thousands” of paid subscribers, meaning he’s earning well over $100,000 a year just from the email platform alone. 

The Lemon Head footprint includes other social media platforms as well—his personal brand boasts a following of 2.6 million on Instagram, 2.1 million on TikTok, 1.6 million on Facebook, and 200,000 on Bluesky. Over 600,000 of those have been added since his arrest on Friday. For a guy who left CNN amidst a scandal a little over two years ago, it's a solid audience base that will only continue to grow amidst his feud with the Trump administration. 

More reading on Lemon and his arrest:

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is considering running for his party’s nomination for President in 2028, had the biggest single fundraising quarter for an out-of-cycle Senator ever in Q4, with $12.5 million raised to his campaign, and another $450k to his leadership PAC. According to the campaign, “99% of the donations were less than $100.”

“As Mark fights every day to lower costs, keep Arizonans safe, and defend their constitutional rights, he is boosted by the massive grassroots support that has shown up to have his back,” a spokesman told me. “Five, ten, twenty bucks at a time, these patriots are joining his effort to elect Democrats, hold this administration accountable, and create a better future for Arizona and the country that puts hardworking people ahead of billionaires.” 

Because he’s not up for re-election this year, he’s used some of that money to support fellow Democrats across the country, giving more than $1 million to party committees and other Democrats. 

Kelly’s fundraising success could be attributed to a few factors: for one, he’s been the target of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a high profile fight over what military veterans are allowed to say. On top of that, his campaign has spent over $2.6 million on Facebook and Instagram ads to acquire grassroots donors in the past 90 days, making him the top spending U.S. politician on Meta’s platforms. 

As Democrats once again swim upstream to make a U.S. Senate race in Texas competitive, a mini-scandal involving a local social media creator is giving way-too-online Democrats a headache…