By that time, Ms. Kelly no longer had the support of the network or her fellow “Today” hosts, with her colleagues Al Roker and Craig Melvin having criticized her on the air earlier that morning. At a staff meeting hours later, Andrew Lack, the chairman of NBC News, condemned Ms. Kelly’s remarks and made no mention of her apology.
A number of guests scheduled for episodes of “Megyn Kelly Today” — as varied as the director Ron Howard and a Bergen County, N.J., medium named Craig McManus — pulled out of their appearances. NBC canceled “Megyn Kelly Today” on Oct. 26.
Since going off the air, Ms. Kelly has come to the conclusion that her “blackface” comments were used as a pretext to get rid of her, according to a person familiar with her thinking. She has also kept up a social media presence, posting on her Twitter account a Politico column that defended the Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson from an advertising boycott.
“Today” moved on without her. On Monday, a “Today” meteorologist, Dylan Dreyer, announced she would be a regular host of the third hour alongside Mr. Melvin, Mr. Roker and Sheinelle Jones. In the time since Ms. Kelly has been off the air, viewership totals for the hour have gone up 18 percent. Ms. Kelly’s former home, Studio 6A, has gone dark.
Gossip and Grit
Ms. Kelly grew up near Albany and worked as a corporate lawyer in Chicago before zeroing in on television. On a 2015 episode of her Fox News show, “The Kelly File,” she told the story of her career switch to her guest, Dr. Phil McGraw, the television host.
As she explained it, she was watching him on an episode of “Oprah” in the early 2000s when she heard him say something that struck her: “The only difference between you and someone you envy is that you settle for less.” She left the law firm for an on-air job at an ABC affiliate. Not long after that, she joined Fox News, where she worked for 12 years.
She took over a prime-time slot in 2013 and drew significant media attention during the last presidential campaign, when Donald J. Trump criticized her harshly after she was an unflinching moderator of a primary-season debate. In 2016, she published a best-selling memoir with a title that had its origins in the words Dr. Phil had spoken to Oprah: “Settle for More.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/business/media/megyn-kelly-nbc.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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