Megyn Kelly is bringing a new outlook to ‘ Today’
Former Fox News host trades news for lifestyle, celebs and a live audience
Megyn Kelly Today, the 9 a. m. hour of NBC’s highly profitable Today show, marks the rebranding of the former Fox News host.
The show, a typical blend of news, lifestyle segments and celebrities in front of a live studio audience, debuts Monday and “will be topical, but it’s not going to be all news of the day,” she said this week in a sparse office at 30 Rock that she had moved into that morning. “We’ll definitely be talking about major developments out of Washington, but it’s not going to be the Trump channel. I just don’t think that’s what people are looking for.”
And besides, despite her 13 years at The Kelly File, “politics has never been something that’s important to me.”
So what will viewers such as “Madge from Middle America,” Kelly’s longtime imaginary target, glean if they start watching Monday? “They’ll understand what’s happening in their world, cultural issues, legal issues and, a lot of times, personal issues, whether it’s something focused on a person’s marriage, or child- rearing, or quest for happiness, or health or finances.”
In other words, not much different from previous versions of Today’s later hours, also filled with celebrities. Premiere week’s turnout will range from NBC talent — the women of Saturday Night Live and the casts of Will & Grace and This is Us — to Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
The difference, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim says, is Kelly. Although she’s known for her pointed, sometimes combative questioning of politicians, “she’s really warm, she’s really funny, she’s incredibly quick on her feet, she’s devoted to her family and husband, ( and) she’s open about things that are going on in her personal life,” he says.
“This isn’t about trying to shoehorn her into a format where she doesn’t belong. This show is a natural expression of what she wanted to do from day one. I think the audience will sense that authenticity, even if it’s a side of her they haven’t seen before.”
Kelly left Fox News in January, after the drama of sexual harassment charges against ousted chief Roger Ailes, lawsuits, settlements, and Donald Trump’s mockery and attempts to intimidate her during the presidential campaign, detailed in her 2016 memoir, Settle for More.
Has she spoken to the president? “The week of his inauguration, we had a phone call. I congratulated him; he congratulated me on taking this job at his former shop. He had all sorts of advice to me on the show, and it was very cordial, and we’re fine,” she says. Why is she rolling her eyes as she says this? “It was such a year of nonsense, and in some ways even a year of torment.”
She turned down a larger offer to stay at Fox and moved to NBC, where she anchored a low- rated summer prime- time newsmagazine ( losing to repeats of 60 Minutes and America’s Funniest Videos), scheduled to return next spring, but is now prepped for her main role as morning host.
Does she worry about disappointment in the treacherous world of daytime TV?
“People say, ‘ Oh, it’s a new place; oh you can fail; oh, you haven’t done a morning network TV show,’ ” Kelly says. But “you don’t make decisions out of fear. I could have made more money, I could have had more job security … that wasn’t what I wanted to do.”