Don won the hearts of his CNN viewers when he rang in the New Year by having a little fun at Tipitina’s bar in New Orleans with his cohost, Brooke Baldwin. Clutching a plastic cup of beer in hand for the entirety of the broadcast, Don told Anderson Cooper, hosting the show from Times Square alongside Kathy Griffin that “We are not drunk! Well Brooke is not drunk.” Yikes!
Viewers were losing their minds over Don’s behavior, saying that they wished he would be drunk on air more often! “Don Lemon is straight up hammered on CNN right now, and it’s my new favorite show,” one girl tweeted. “New Rule: @DonLemon must be drunk during every single TV show he does now,” another person wrote.
While Don might have been joking, his increasingly bizarre behavior throughout the night suggested he wasn’t, and the internet went wild. While Brooke poured them champagne at the bar, Don started rapping “I got that bubbly” into the CNN mic. Omg! At one point, he and Brooke jokingly discussed the possibility of sharing a midnight kiss, which viewers had been asking about. Don suggested there was “sexual tension” between them. Oh, Don.
He dangled his legs into a hot tub at the bar, still fully clothed in dress pants, to interview more NYE revelers, and danced a little shakily with Brooke, mic still in hand. So funny! But the most cringeworthy, amazing night was when Don and Brooke were talking to Anderson and cohost Kathy back in NYC. After a bit in which Kathy had stripped down to her bra, Don commented that “I didn’t know you had all of that going on up there,” and that Kathy had a “nice rack.”
“‘Cutting him off, cutting him off!’ Brooke said, yanking away Don’s beer cup and telling the CNN camera to get away from her cohost. Kathy laughed the moment off, but Anderson was clearly shocked, speechless and shaking his head in disbelief.
HollywoodLifers, do you think Don was drunk? Tell us in the comments!