Megyn Kelly effectively torched her NBC career in one fell swoop last month while discussing Halloween costumes on her hour of the Today show, when she posed the question — with what seemed like genuine bewilderment — of why it’s racist for white people to put on blackface when dressing up. “Back when I was a kid that was okay, as long as you were dressing up as a character,” she said, making her case.
In response, NBC gave Kelly the chance to apologize the following day but later decided to pull her off air for the rest of the week before canceling their relationship with her altogether. Her exit thus ended just over a year of controversy and lackluster ratings. In hindsight, execs probably should have seen this coming from Megyn “Santa just is white” Kelly, but regardless, her ousting leaves NBC News in a bind. For instance, the network had been planning to prime Kelly for election night coverage but since had to scramble to erase her from programming, via Page Six:
Page Six is told that execs had long planned to feature Kelly heavily in its midterm-election coverage Tuesday night, and even sent out a press release before the scandal broke announcing that Kelly would front the broadcast alongside NBC heavyweights Lester Holt of the network’s “Nightly News,” “Today” host Savannah Guthrie and “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd.
But on Monday, NBC put out a video ad spot that deep-sixed Kelly from the lineup, showing only Holt, Guthrie and Todd at the desk for its “The Vote: America’s Future” special live broadcast. NBC News declined to comment, but a network insider told us that Kelly is “not going to be part of election-night coverage.”
Exit negotiations between Kelly and NBC are underway to part ways one one year into her massive, $69 million three-year contract.
(Via Page Six)
