Megyn Kelly reportedly discussed becoming an anchor on ABC’s Good Morning America .
Lots of speculation is revolving around the host of The Kelly File on the Fox News Channel whose contract is up for renewal in July of 2017 as she considers her options. Fox has already presented her with a $20 million-a-year offer, otherwise known as Bill O’Reilly money, which is apparently more than any other network can offer in terms of pay (although perhaps not mainstream media prestige).
A previous report by the Inquisitr suggested that CNN was supposedly prepared to move mountains to bring her over to the competing news network to perhaps compete head to head against FNC’s O’Reilly at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Airing at 9 p.m. Eastern Monday through Friday, The Kelly File originated as a legal-oriented weekly segment on The O’Reilly Factor . There has been speculation that Bill O’Reilly and Kelly, who previously anchored in the afternoon, have had a falling out since then, a possible clash of egos that would not be unprecedented in the television universe.
O’Reilly averages about 3.1 million viewers a night (which spiked to 4 million last month), with Kelly getting slightly less than that, which nonetheless blows away their counterparts on MSNBC and CNN. Tucker Carlson’s new 7 p.m. FNC show, which replaced the program anchored by Greta Van Susteren placeholder Brit Hume, has also generated huge ratings. On some evenings, Sean Hannity at 10 p.m pulls in higher ratings than The Kelly File , however.
According to Variety , Megyn Kelly had a sit-down to discuss a potential GMA anchor job, one that would not boot any other anchor off the show.
“Kelly and ABC News discussed the idea of bringing the Fox News anchor over to co-host the Disney network’s Good Morning America , according to two people familiar with the talks, which at this point are not believed to be likely to come to fruition. Other ideas to bring Kelly to ABC News were also broached during these conversations, these people said. ABC and Kelly held ‘a handful of exploratory talks’ in 2016, according to one of these people, with the latest taking place as recently as a few weeks ago. However, ABC’s interest in the scenario has ‘cooled,’ this person said.”
ABC News has denied offering Megyn Kelly a job, “end of story,” Vanity Fair reported last week, while noting, “Within the last month, according to a person familiar with the discussions, ABC has renewed, and perhaps sweetened, its effort to woo Kelly.”
Megyn Kelly, who is still promoting her much-hyped memoir Settle for More , has expressed a desire to spend more time with her three kids, which a morning shift at ABC or at another network presumably would permit. Kelly’s novelist husband is a stay-at-home dad.
“As Kelly’s media tour continued, Fox News suddenly seemed less hospitable. Within the network, some took to calling Kelly not ‘Megyn’ but rather ‘Me-again’ on account of her ubiquity,” Variety added.
With that in mind perhaps, O’Reilly implied last month during an appearance on CBS This Morning that Kelly was making the Fox News Channel look bad, given the book’s coverage of the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal.
Although Settle for More is currently number four on the Publishers Weekly hardcover nonfiction list , it apparently has only sold about 143,000 copies to date.
Some Megyn Kelly critics, who have denounced her for playing the martyr card, contend that when she famously accused Donald Trump of misogyny during the first GOP presidential debate in August of 2015 (and which prompted a long-running feud also chronicled in the book), it was more about careerism and burnishing her resume for CNN or another network than a legitimate journalistic inquiry.
In the intervening months up through and after the presidential election, The Kelly File has featured a lot of anti-Donald Trump content, in contrast to much of what is presented on bookend programs anchored by O’Reilly and Sean Hannity (who was bumped from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. about three years ago to make room for Megyn Kelly).
Against the backdrop of poll-obsessed media expectations that Hillary Clinton was a lock to win the presidency, the video below purports to show a look of astonishment by Megyn Kelly when Donald Trump pulled ahead on election night.
Although heir apparents Lachlan and James Murdoch appear anxious to re-sign Megyn Kelley for Fox, CEO/patriarch Rupert Murdoch has cautioned that the network has a deep bench of personalities from which they could select a new 9 p.m. anchor if it ever comes to that.
Parenthetically, Andrea Tantaros’ appearance last month on Good Morning America cost her an FNC paycheck , which she was collecting even though she was taken off the air arising from a contract dispute because the interview violated confidentiality stipulations.
Do you think that when push comes to shove, Megyn Kelly, 45, will “settle for more” and re-up with Fox News rather than jump to a TV competitor such as GMA ?
[Featured Image by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Images]