Matt: Megyn Is a Disaster!

Incensed by Megyn Kelly’s interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Matt Lauer fears she’ll ruin Today

America was outraged. Controversy exploded the moment viewers learned Megyn Kelly interviewed ultra-conservative Infowars radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. In her quest for ratings, NBC’S new high-priced addition gave a national forum on her Sunday night show to the man who claimed the Sandy Hook school shooting was faked. Even worse, the show aired on Father’s Day, an almost incomprehensibly insensitive move by the network. Several advertisers pulled out in protest, and the NBC station in Connecticut chose not to air it. Alex himself released pre-interview recordings of Megyn giving him her word that it wouldn’t be a “hit piece.” And while the heavily edited segment was extremely tough on him, it was a disaster for Megyn, NBC — and, Matt Lauer

believes, for Today, where Megyn will be taking over the third hour. “It is hard to not feel that Kelly has just emboldened Jones,” wrote Variety TV critic Sonia Saraiya. “For all the buildup, the segment ultimately revealed more about Kelly’s weaknesses as an anchor… than it did about Jones.”

And her NBC colleagues are disgusted. “Matt thinks this interview gave a platform to an individual who peddles conspiracy theories about dead children. It’s a stunt that Megyn would have gotten away with when she was at Fox News, but this is NBC,” a network insider tells In Touch. Matt, 59, is afraid that the growing drama and lagging ratings plaguing Megyn’s Sunday night show will soon negatively affect Today when she joins in September. “Matt is incensed that she is tarnishing the network’s image.”

Even before the Alex interview, viewers already had a negative opinion about Megyn. “People love to hate her,” Henry Schafer, executive vice president of The Q Scores Company (which measures celebs’ familiarity and appeal), tells In Touch. “They watch to root against her. They want her to fail. I call it the Kardashian effect: Similar to [Kim Kardashian], she is very polarizing.” (Megyn’s Q rating is 10; the average score for a national broadcast talent is 14.)

The ratings back that up. In her third Sunday night broadcast, Megyn’s ratings dropped for the third straight week. She lost to a re-run of 60 Minutes, and in the key 18–49 demographic also was trounced by America’s Funniest Home Videos. Megyn justified the interview by pointing out that President Donald Trump sometimes cites Infowars articles and also is friendly with Alex, 43. But with controversy engulfing her and the network leading up to the interview, they scrambled in the editing room at the last minute to make the piece much tougher on Alex. In the end, some journalists praised her and others dismissed her for what many saw as a failed ratings stunt.

Megyn keeps making missteps. Hannah D’avino, whose sister Rachel was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, tells In Touch it was “heartless” of Megyn, 46, and NBC to give Alex airtime. “A lot of media sources forget there are survivors on the other end of these stories they keep pushing,” she said while on the verge of tears. “What they don’t focus on is the people who take [Alex’s] words so seriously that they call families and threaten them because their loved one was murdered.” (Megyn mentioned the threats, but didn’t ask Alex about them on the show.)

Megyn just “isn’t a great interviewer,” says the insider, adding that she refuses to take advice. “She believes she is above reproach and knows what her fans want,” says the insider. “She’s dictating who she’ll interview because it’s in her [reported $20 million] contract,” says the insider. “[NBC News Chairman] Andy Lack has given Megyn keys to the kingdom.”

Matt and others at Today are determined not to let her torpedo their show. One top exec “is begging Andy to postpone Megyn’s 9 a.m. launch this fall,” says the insider. “The feeling is that it’s only a matter of time until she lands herself in another a huge controversy so that she is unable to be a part of Today.” ◼