Don Lemon remains suspended after a sexist tirade claiming that Nikki Haley was lying by saying she’s in her “prime.” Now, CNN boss Chris Licht has revealed his final punishment.

Lemon’s controversial comments came last Thursday during a broadcast of ‘New Day,’ his bottom-rated morning show on the liberal network. In them, he strangely insisted that Haley isn’t in her prime because women are supposedly in their prime in their 20s, 30s, and “maybe 40s.” Co-host Poppy Harlow was stunned, asking him to qualify his statement, to which he responded for people to “google it.”

So is Lemon, who has had numerous other issues in the past (including recently berating his other co-host, Kaitlan Collins) headed for the door? Of course, not. All he has to do is get some “formal training.”

Just in: Don Lemon will return to CNN This Morning on Wednesday, per note from CEO Chris Licht. ‘He has agreed to participate in formal training, as well as continuing to listen and learn,’ Licht says

— Brian Steinberg (@bristei) February 21, 2023

Of note is that Lemon is 56 years old. He’s had a long history of sexism at CNN, as well as unacceptably partisan behavior for the position he holds (at least under the standard Licht claims to have set since taking over). The idea that Lemon is going to suddenly change who he is after a few sensitivity training sessions is laughable.

The real head-scratcher here is why CNN would want to keep Lemon around. Since being moved from his bottom-rated primetime show, which had begun to mirror Joy Reid’s parodical MSNBC program, the host has run CNN’s morning show into the ground. It’s once again a bottom-rated effort, just as it was with Chris Cuomo at the helm.

You’d think Licht would want a fresher start at the network he is seeking to rescue. Instead, he’s mostly plodded along to the status quo. Amidst his loud proclamations of changing CNN’s direction, the result has been to fire a few dead-enders like Brian Stelter and keep everything else flowing. Some of that is probably contractual issues. The rest is likely identity politics.

The two high-profile firings since Licht took over have been straight, white males. Those are the easy targets in today’s political environment. No one will bat an eye, and they won’t criticize you for it. But if CNN fires a black, gay man? There’s going to be backlash and a lot of negative headlines.

I don’t think Licht’s plan of reshuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic is sustainable, though. Many of the personalities heading his programming are toxic. They are never going to grow the network’s audience. Until some tougher decisions are made, the financially harmful malaise will continue.