Juicero would've been a smarter investment. I wonder if the execs who wanted Kelly to be the "face of NBC" will get their bonuses. Everything about her was a disaster.
Bit from
NYT: It's Final: Megyn Kelly and NBC Part Ways. And She Will Be Paid in Full.
NBC hired Ms. Kelly away from Fox News two years ago. She drew big ratings at the conservative cable network, a key component of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, as a sometimes prosecutorial prime-time host and achieved wider recognition during the 2016 presidential campaign.
After making the move, Ms. Kelly, 48, was on a path to becoming a face of NBC. In addition to giving her a prominent slot on the "Today" show, the network made her the host of a new Sunday night news program. The plan also called for her to cover breaking news, politics and special events. But her time at NBC, which began on May 1, 2017, was bumpy from the start.
On "Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly," a show meant to challenge CBS's "60 Minutes," Ms. Kelly faced off against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in an interview that was widely criticized. And she became the scourge of parents of children murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings when she interviewed the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who had falsely claimed the killings were a hoax.
When the time came for her to join "Today" in September 2017, she sometimes seemed out of her element in the lighter and brighter realm of morning television.
The network had revamped Studio 6A at its 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters, installing roughly 100 seats so that "Megyn Kelly Today" would have its own cheering squad. But with sharp questions and comments, Ms. Kelly offended celebrity guests like Debra Messing and Jane Fonda. Of more importance to network executives, she delivered middling ratings.
By the time one of NBC's biggest events came around — the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea — Ms. Kelly was not among the correspondents sent to cover it.
In May 2018, during the network's annual presentation to advertisers known as the upfronts, there was another sign that her stock was down at NBC. From the Radio City Music Hall stage, the late-night host Seth Meyers mentioned the network's broadcast of "Jesus Christ Superstar," with John Legend in the lead role, before remarking: "You know a network has some range when they have a black Jesus and Megyn Kelly." The joke was a reference Ms. Kelly's much-criticized statements, made during a 2013 segment on Fox News, that Santa Claus and Jesus were white.