Since signing a staggering, multi-million dollar deal with NBC, host Megyn Kelly has underwhelmed at nearly every turn.
Following the surprise cancellation of Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly news-magazine show over the summer, Kelly’s move to anchor an hour of NBC’s flagship morning show “Today” was seen by industry experts as her last chance.
So far, things are going badly. So badly, in fact, that she’s hurting other NBC franchises — and insiders are whispering that another cancellation could be coming again for the former Fox News star.
“Not only are ratings plummeting since Megyn Kelly joined the ‘Today’ franchise, but the numbers show Kelly’s lead-in has also affected Kathie Lee [Gifford] and Hoda Kotb’s show, which follows straight afterwards,” an industry insider told The New York Post. “They’ve taken a huge hit with Megyn as their lead-in.”
NBC executives have become nervous, reports state, and are eager to see Kelly turn around her struggling program — or else.
Looking at the numbers, the rumors are hardly surprising. Ratings for Kelly’s hour-long segment of “Today” have been down a staggering 32 percent compared to last year. The show following hers, “Kathie Lee & Hoda”, is also down 26 percent year-over-year since Kelly came on.
“Too many people are tuning out NBC. Hoda and Kathie Lee had been a bright spot in the mornings. People are alarmed,” the insider reportedly told The New York Post.
Kelly has been on a steady decline since last summer, when she became embroiled in a nasty fight with then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The former conservative star turned her back on her core audience and jumped at the chance to cash-in with the mainstream media on NBC.
Her audience, it seems, turned their back too — and it has left NBC network executives nervous about the bottom-line.
— The Horn editorial team