Megyn Kelly Dances With Hoda Kotb As ‘Today’ Ratings Stumble [Video]
Megyn Kelly started dancing with NBC colleague Hoda Kotb on the 9 a.m. Eastern time version of the Today show on Thursday, which many on social media thought was a cringe-worthy, pre-planned attempt to boost ratings and perhaps humanize the former Fox News Channel anchor.
In the segment, Kotb told the Megyn Kelly Today host that music makes her feel good, “[a]nd all of a sudden, the two morning TV stars were up and dancing to Pitbull’s ‘I Know You Want Me.’ The transition couldn’t have been more clunky,” Mediaite observed.
Ironically perhaps, Megyn’s ratings are said to be bringing down Hoda and Kathie Lee’s show, which airs at 10 a.m. Eastern. In addition to Kotb, Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, and Al Roker have appeared with Megyn and “The revolving door of anchors has led to behind-the-scenes chatter that Kelly needs help carrying the hour of morning TV that NBC has given to her,” Variety observed.
Now wrapping up its fourth week, Megyn Kelly’s attempt to reinvent herself from prime-time news anchor to daytime diva focusing on lifestyle and entertainment has been met with lackluster reviews and ratings. Several well-publicized awkward moments with stars such as the cast of Will and Grace, Jane Fonda, and Tom Brokaw probably haven’t helped matters either.
The Washington Post provides this assessment of where things stand.
“Last year, Kelly was a rising star on Fox News, earning national headlines for her dogged questioning of presidential candidate Donald Trump. But her short tenure on NBC’s Megyn Kelly Today continues to be challenging both for her and the network. The show premiered on Sept. 25, and its ratings continue to tank.”
As the Inquisitr previously reported, bad buzz about the show is apparently making celebrity publicists unenthusiastic about booking their clients on Megyn Kelly Today, and celebrities are a stable of daytime TV. In addition, Megyn Kelly’s 12-year tenure on Fox News (which has been referred as “the other elephant in the room”) is likely an issue for mostly liberal Hollywood celebrities, and NBC execs probably should have anticipated the political “resistance” when they signed her to a $23 million per year deal for three years.
A report published earlier this week by BuzzFeed suggested that things are getting worse for Megyn Kelly Today insofar as audience erosion is concerned, and which may prompt NBC News to take action of some kind with its important and historically profitable daytime schedule.
“From the start, Megyn Kelly Today‘s Nielsen ratings have been down compared to the third hour of Today, which was cohosted by Al Roker and Tamron Hall last fall. Despite a huge marketing push for Megyn Kelly Today, the show was down 12% in total viewers in Week 1 (2.9 million for Roker and Hall versus 2.5 million for Kelly), 24% in Week 2 (2.9 million versus 2.2 million), and 23% in Week 3 (2.9 million versus 2.3 million). Worse are Kelly’s ratings in the key demographic for news, adults 25 to 54: Week 1, down 25%; Week 2, down 38%; Week 3, down 33%….And while it’s not total carnage in the ratings yet, the weaker lead-in from Megyn Kelly Today is certainly affecting Kathie Lee and Hoda: It’s down both in total viewers and among 25- to 54-year-olds compared to the same weeks last year.”
Kelly’s ratings got a temporary boost on October 9, however, with the combination of Columbus Day and the explosive interview with TV reporter Lauren Sivan about her disturbing encounter with scandal-ridden movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Megyn Kelly Today is also losing badly to Live with Kelly and Ryan, which is syndicated by ABC and generally airs in most markets at 9 a.m.
A report on Monday published in the New York Post claimed that Megyn Kelly’s ratings hit a “possible all-time low,” with viewership dropping “from 0.77 ratings points on Monday to 0.54 ratings points on Tuesday of last week,” but that presumably was a reference to the advertiser-desired demographic only.
A thread that keeps coming up in media industry reporting, and on social media, is that the former corporate lawyer doesn’t seem believable or genuine as a daytime host
Week 3 Megyn Kelly ratings: 2.3 mill viewers, 0.6 rating in demo, both improvements versus week 2. But year over year? Down 23% and 33%
— John Koblin (@koblin) October 17, 2017
Another related issue is that Megyn Kelly seems to lack a solid fan base or a constituency. For example, those Fox News viewers disillusioned with her over all the anti-Donald Trump content on The Kelly File during the 2016 election season seem unlikely to follow her to NBC. Alternatively, more liberal NBC viewers could be reluctant to welcome Megyn Kelly into their living rooms because of her FNC resume. Or, as an Inquisitr commenter previously observed about a perceived crossover-appeal or lack thereof, “The left hates her and the right has disowned her.”
Watch Megyn Kelly dance with Hoda Kotb on Megyn Kelly Today.
Do you think that NBC News will have to pull the plug on Megyn Kelly Today because it’s a no-win situation, or will it eventually find its audience?
[Featured Image by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP Images]
