Kelly off the air; NBC News weighs her future
NEW YORK — The future of Megyn Kelly’s tumultuous and costly run at NBC News appeared to be in doubt Thursday as she did not appear on her morning program “Megyn Kelly Today.”
Kelly’s absence came a day after she apologized for her onair comments about using blackface on Halloween. “Given the circumstances, ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ will be on tape the rest of the week,” a network representative said in a statement.
The abruptly scheduled rerun and announcement immediately led to speculation that Kelly is leaving NBC. That would represent a spectacular flameout for one of the rising stars of TV news — and a humbling retreat for a network that spent heavily to lure Kelly from Fox News.
But a representative for Kelly said she had not been contacted by NBC on Thursday.
“No one has told Megyn or her representatives anything,” said Davidson Goldin, Kelly’s spokesman. He added that Kelly’s lawyer is scheduled to meet with NBC News executives on Friday to discuss her future.
NBC News previously announced that Kelly would be part of the network’s coverage of the midterm elections on Nov. 6. But the news division has not responded to queries.
In recent weeks, NBC News executives and Kelly have been talking about giving her a new role in hard news coverage.
That prospect, however, appeared increasingly dim this week after her comments — in which she questioned why the use of blackface on Halloween was inappropriate — generated a major backlash on social media and anger among her NBC News colleagues.
NBC aggressively covered Kelly’s flare-up on “NBC Nightly News” on Tuesday and again Wednesday on “Today” in a segment followed by harsh condemnation from two of the program’s African-American regulars, Al Roker and Craig Melvin.
NBC News Chairman Andy Lack also criticized Kelly Wednesday at a divisionwide meeting scheduled before the flare-up occurred.
Even before the controversy, NBC News would have been hard pressed to come up with a new position for Kelly that could justify her high salary.
A show on MSNBC appears to be a nonstarter. The cable news network is a favorite among politically progressive viewers who would likely balk at the addition of Kelly, who made her bones at Fox News.
Several people inside NBC believe the Friday talks with Kelly are likely to center on how much money she will get to depart. Kelly has $48 million left on her three-year deal, the highest salary in television news, according to one person familiar with the situation.
Kelly’s program has won kudos for providing a platform for many #MeToo sexual harassment victims, including those who have made allegations against her former colleague Matt Lauer, the fired “Today” co-anchor.