There must have been a lot of curiosity seekers for Megyn Kelly’s first television interview since parting ways with NBC News in January 2019. As a result, her appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight generated huge ratings. About four million viewers watched the Fox News Channel interview conducted by Carlson with the former NBC Today show host, and prior to that, the anchor of FNC’s The Kelly File.
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News broke on Friday night that NBC News and Megyn Kelly have officially parted ways, with the erstwhile Today show host reportedly exiting with the balance owed on her three-year contact, totaling about $30 million. Without providing any details, NBC said in a statement that “The parties have resolved their differences, and Megyn Kelly is no longer an employee of NBC.” The network took Kelly off the air in late October after the host’s controversial Halloween blackface comments (despite her two apologies). Her lawyer and the network were negotiating the severance package ever since. The agreement reportedly contains a confidentiality clause.
Megyn Kelly Today is about to become yesterday’s news.
NBC News has cancelled the 9 a.m. Eastern time hour of the Today show franchise known as Megyn Kelly Today. Fortunately, staffers for that Today time slot will apparently continue to have jobs moving forward under a new host or hosts.
As the entire universe knows by now, Kelly got into hot water this week with the Halloween-blackface comments. Given the flat ratings for her NBC platform, the TV network may have seized the moment to cut ties with her.
The outcome may have been a combination of bad judgment and bad ratings, with NBC opportunistically getting rid of the opportunist.
Kelly’s new attorney — who maintains at this time that she is still an NBC employee — is currently negotiating how much cash she’ll take with her from her three-year, $69 million contract. Kelly no longer has an agent, having parted ways with the high-profile CAA group.
NBC News spokesperson: “Megyn Kelly Today is not returning." https://t.co/qPNGScL7RH
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 26, 2018
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Nonetheless, multimillionaire Megyn Kelly has amassed generational wealth as media pundit.
Regardless of the outcome of the settlement, no one will ever have to hold a bake sale for the former Fox News Channel anchor who helped bring down the late Roger Ailes, the ex-FNC CEO, over sexual harassment allegations.
Jumping on the #MeToo bandwagon as an opportunistic way to bring in viewers to Megyn Kelly Today which premiered in September 2017, Kelly was also vocal in her criticism of how NBC handled the Matt Lauer sexual harassment accusations and has implied that she has some dirt on Lauer, which can’t have pleased her network overlords.
The Latest: NBC News says the 'Megyn Kelly Today' show is being canceled, following Kelly's on-air comments about blackface. https://t.co/c0ShHyqlMW
Megny Kelly is not having a happy Halloween.
Kelly has reportedly hired an attorney amid reports that NBC News might cancel Megyn Kelly Today.
Kelly has apologized twice this week for her Halloween-related blackface comments, remarks which have been publicly condemned by her NBC colleagues, including network chairman Andrew Lack, as well as the quick-to-pounce, virtue-signalling social justice cohort on Twitter.
In the attempt to reinvent herself from a hard news journalist to daytime diva on the 9 a.m. Eastern Today show franchise, Megyn Kelly faced a fundamental and perhaps insurmountable challenge. The ex-corporate lawyer fundamentally lacks a television constituency.
Liberals among the current audience, on social media, and the majority of journalists who work as TV critics, simply won’t accept her on the NBC daytime platform because of her Fox News Channel resume. More conservative viewers haven’t forgiven her for turning FNC’s Kelly File into an anti-Trump and Never Trump forum.
Internally, she seems to enjoy minimal backing from her co-workers, even before this latest controversy.
When Megyn Kelly Today show debuted in September 2017, the host insisted that the show would be a politics-free zone. She did, however, quickly jump on the #MeToo bandwagon — which included reporting on alleged sexual harassment scandals within NBC such as the one that engulfed Matt Lauer — perhaps as an opportunistic way to stabilize her daypart lackluster ratings.
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A year into her job as the host of Megyn Kelly Today, most media outlets have perhaps unfairly stopped triumphantly reporting about the lackluster ratings that Megyn Kelly is apparently still drawing for the 9 a.m. Eastern slot for the NBC NewsToday show franchise.
Kelly’s primary challenge is and continues to be that the ex-corporate lawyer fundamentally lacks a television constituency. Liberals among the audience, on social media, and the majority of journalists who work as TV critics simply won’t accept her on the NBC daytime platform. More conservative viewers haven’t forgiven her for turning FNC’s Kelly File into an anti-Trump and Never Trump forum.
Whether you like him or not, Donald Trump has exposed many mainstream media pundits as shamelessly opportunistic at best in terms of seeking their next payday. For instance, you’ve probably noticed that quite a few high-profile talking heads completely changed their ideology when they switched networks, which sometimes means literally just walking across the street. It’s kind of like the so-called baby-face-to-heel turn in the kayfabe world of professional wrestling.
Megyn Kelly was expected to follow suit as she tried to fit in to the NBC liberal culture in the process of becoming a daytime diva.
When Megyn Kelly Today show debuted, the host insisted that it would be a politics-free zone. She did, however, quickly jump on the #MeToo bandwagon as a way to stabilize her ratings.
“The Democrats should be happy that this is not a trial because if it were, she would likely lose…This would be a nightmare criminal trial, but that’s not what this is.” –@megynkelly #KavanaughHearings pic.twitter.com/9mqQfYPcty