Don Lemon, the CNN morning-show anchor, faced an internal rebuke from the chairman of his own network on Friday after his on-air comments about women and aging set off an uproar inside the cable news channel.
CNN’s chairman, Chris Licht, opened his daily 9 a.m. editorial call by saying that the remarks by Mr. Lemon, which were widely viewed as sexist and insensitive, had left him “disappointed.”
“His remarks were upsetting, unacceptable and unfair to his co-hosts, and ultimately a huge distraction to the great work of this organization,” Mr. Licht told his staff, according to a recording of the call obtained by The New York Times.
It is unusual for a network chief to criticize a star anchor in such stark terms — but the situation involving Mr. Lemon and CNN’s struggling morning show is approaching a crisis point just months after its debut.
Mr. Lemon, a CNN veteran with a history of televised gaffes, roiled colleagues on Thursday when he asserted on-air that Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate, “isn’t in her prime, sorry.”
“A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” Mr. Lemon said, to the visible dismay of his “CNN This Morning” co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. He refused to back down after Ms. Harlow questioned his remarks, telling her to “look it up.”
On Friday, a far more contrite-sounding Mr. Lemon addressed the matter in a six-minute monologue to the CNN newsroom.
“I am sorry,” Mr. Lemon said. “I did not mean to hurt anyone. I did not mean to offend anyone.” He added that “the people I’m closest to in this organization are women,” citing a list of female colleagues including the anchors Dana Bash and Erin Burnett.
Mr. Lemon was absent on Friday from his program’s broadcast, though he had previously said he was scheduled to take the day off; he dialed into the Friday call from Miami. A CNN spokesman said that Mr. Lemon had not been formally suspended. The spokesman declined to comment further on personnel matters.
“CNN This Morning” began in November as a signature project of Mr. Licht, a former morning-show producer who took over the leadership of CNN last May. The show was supposed to be a statement of intent for Mr. Licht’s vision for the network.
Instead, it has been plagued by tensions on the air and off. The co-hosts have clashed and talked over one another during on-air exchanges, a far cry from the easy rapport that viewers have come to expect from morning TV. The original executive producer has already been replaced. The New York Post reported in December that the show’s crew was rattled after Mr. Lemon loudly confronted Ms. Collins about his perception that she was interrupting him too often on the air.
Mr. Lemon, who previously hosted a 10 p.m. show, has lamented CNN’s declining prime-time ratings to some colleagues, according to two people who requested anonymity to share private conversations.
Even with that backdrop, Thursday’s on-air incident left executives and journalists at CNN astounded.
Immediately after Mr. Lemon made his remarks about Ms. Haley and women’s ages, Ms. Harlow reacted in disbelief — “What are you talking … wait …” — and began to push back. “Are you talking about ‘prime’ for child bearing?” she said. “Or are you talking about ‘prime’ for being president?”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Mr. Lemon replied, speaking over his co-anchor. “I’m just saying what the facts are. Google it.”
Mr. Lemon had been discussing a proposal by Ms. Haley that politicians over 75 years old be subjected to mental competency tests, a comment viewed as a swipe at President Biden, who just turned 80. (Ms. Haley later responded to Mr. Lemon in a tweet, referring to “Sexist middle-aged CNN anchors.”)
Ms. Haley came up again on the show about an hour later, in a discussion between Mr. Lemon and the CNN correspondent Audie Cornish, who told Mr. Lemon that “the idea of ‘prime’ that you Google on the internet” relates to “sexual and reproductive prime.” Mr. Lemon pushed back, saying that he had been reacting to Ms. Haley’s critique of older politicians.
Ms. Harlow appeared stone-faced during that exchange, and when the show broke for a commercial, she stood up and walked off the set, according to three people with knowledge of the events. Ms. Collins followed her co-host into the women’s bathroom to check on her.
When the show resumed, Ms. Harlow sat out the following segment, a discussion with the CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, before returning for the remainder of the broadcast.
Ratings for “CNN This Morning” have consistently dropped since its start in November, according to Nielsen, and its audience has failed to keep pace with CNN’s previous show in the morning slot, “New Day.”
It represents a major headache for Mr. Licht, who is attempting to reinvigorate the network at a difficult moment. The new corporate parent that hired him, Warner Bros. Discovery, eliminated the network’s nascent streaming service CNN+, and Mr. Licht oversaw a round of layoffs late last year.
The early ad campaign for “CNN This Morning” featured scenes of its three co-hosts laughing together in a coffee shop and gushing about their off-the-set friendships.
The actual broadcasts have displayed little evidence of that chumminess. In the waning minutes of Thursday’s show, the co-hosts had moved on to a lighter conversation about the surprising durability of the 47-year-old golfer Tiger Woods.
“Seventy-two holes in four days,” Ms. Collins said of Mr. Woods. “Only something that someone in their prime could do.”
Mr. Lemon burst into laughter while Ms. Harlow stared straight into the camera.
“Touché, Kaitlan,” she said, slyly.
