Megyn Kelly Rumors: ‘Today’ Host Given Too Much Power, Show Struggling To Book Top Guests, Insider Claims
Megyn Kelly could be in some trouble inside the Today show, with a new report claiming that the host is upsetting the network and could be having trouble booking guests to her show within the show.
Kelly has been surrounded by controversy and rumors since joining the show last year and running into a series of difficulties within her first few weeks. That has continued into this year, with Kelly getting into a spat with Jane Fonda last week that led Kelly to dredge up Fonda’s controversial opposition to the Vietnam War.
On Monday’s episode of Megyn Kelly Today, her eponymous hour-long segment of the Today show, Kelly hit back at Fonda, who criticized the former Fox News host for bringing up Fonda’s plastic surgery in a September interview. In her response to Fonda, Kelly brought up the “Hanoi Jane” moniker the actress earned for her opposition to the Vietnam War.
As the New York Post‘s Page Six reported, the attack left other Today show staffers worried about the future of Megyn’s show and concerned that the show’s brass has given her too much power over her show.
“The problem is that nobody at NBC is controlling Megyn. They paid her more than $20?million to host the 9?a.m. show, and she’s been given too much power. But the fact remains: You can’t say those things, or be so aggressive, on morning TV,” an insider told the outlet. “Plus, Megyn was already having trouble booking celebrities — so how is she ever going to book other stars if they disagree and she later goes on air later and trashes them?”
Talent agents apparently agree, with MSN reporting that several have shown concern about putting their celebrity clients on Megyn’s show.
Megyn Kelly's Jane Fonda jab may cost 'Today' celeb bookings https://t.co/3aF0B92juI
— MSN (@MSN) January 24, 2018
There are others noting signs of trouble for Megyn Kelly on the Today show. Tim Teeman, a writer for The Daily Beast, called Kelly’s attack on Fonda “vitriolic, spiteful and vengeful,” and noted that Kelly seems to be going against her vow when the show started that she was “done with politics.”
Instead, Teeman accused Kelly of setting up a “rogue Fox News state at NBC,” said she appears to be bringing the bombast from her former network into her new job.
There had been other reports that Megyn Kelly’s political disputes could be getting her into trouble on the Today show. Earlier this month, there was a report that she refused to interview Trump tell-all author Michael Wolff because of a dig Wolff had previously made at Kelly while reporting about Fox News.