Whew, life comes at you fast. If Santa Claus is indeed white, Megyn Kelly is obviously on his “naughty” list given that, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Kelly will likely be ending her hour of the Today show by the close of the current season. Surprisingly, this was reportedly in the works before her now-infamous defense of blackface on her Tuesday morning show. THR’s sources say Kelly recently met with NBC executives to discuss her flagging show’s future, and her purported desire to return to more hard-hitting journalism, like the news and politics she covered for Fox News (sarcasm intended).
As THR reported:
It’s unclear what NBC News would put in place of Kelly’s show. But the discussions are at least an acknowledgement that the experiment is not working and that Kelly would prefer to be covering more as she did with the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Kelly met with NBC News chairman Andy Lack well before the controversy over her blackface comments erupted.
Kelly has grappled with hard news topics — including the #MeToo allegations against a series of powerful men. But her show is in a typically soft daypart. And she has often seemed to chafe at the lighter requirements of the job. And her clumsy comments about blackface on Tuesday’s Megyn Kelly Today — for which she apologized — have only exacerbated the situation.
On Wednesday, Lack appeared in a town hall with NBC News employees, where he discussed the blackface comments, his disappointment with Kelly, and the handling of the incident by her on-air colleagues.
“There is no other way to put this, but I condemn those remarks, there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them. Very unfortunate,” Lack told NBC employees.
“I think that Nightly covered the story well last night and appropriately so,” he continued. “I think this morning on the Today show, the team did an excellent job covering it properly. I thought Craig [Melvin] and Al [Roker] brought a thoughtfulness and a context to it that was sorely missing and they really did this company and our audience a real public service. And that is the Today show and Nightly at their very best.
“As we go forward, my highest priority remains, and as we sort through this with Megyn, let there be no doubt that this is a workplace in which you need to be proud and in which we respect each other in all the ways we know is foundational to who we are.”
But the hits keep coming for Kelly. On Wednesday night, The Hollywood Reporter shared new developments, including that Kelly had been dropped by her agency, CAA. No details were given for the split, but at least one source speculated that the agency’s representation of NBC News president Noah Oppenheim suddenly presented a conflict of interest. United Talent Agency, which had previously represented Kelly and had been courting her to return, reportedly withdrew their interest, due to the controversy fueled by her comments.
Speculation of a conflict of interest within CAA was further fueled by reports that Kelly hired a top talent litigator on Wednesday, indicating that she may be preparing to do battle with NBC, who hired her in early 2017 for an annual salary reportedly close to $20 million. Furthering rumors of a major rift, Kelly will not be appearing on Megyn Kelly Today on Thursday and Friday, and an upcoming appearance by House of Cards cast members has also been cancelled, after they pulled out.
As news of the imminent cancellation of Megyn Kelly Today spread, the hashtag #MegynKellyCanceledParty gained steam on Twitter, with users rejoicing in hilarious fashion.
And of course, there was also speculation about Kelly’s next career move, post-NBC.
As for us? All we have to say to Megyn Kelly is “so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night ...”
And thank you, black Jesus.