Right-wing podcaster Megyn Kelly has shot down a report that she did a screen test for CBS News and was considering a role with the network, claiming that “not one word of this is true” and that she has “ZERO desire” to return to broadcast news.
The rumors of CBS considering the former Fox News star for an on-air anchor slot come as new owner David Ellison has faced criticism from newsroom staffers for backing away from his promise not to “politicize” the network.
Specifically, Ellison and the new leadership at Paramount have taken heat for hiring a former Trump appointee to serve as the CBS News ombudsman and negotiating to buy the stridently pro-Israel, anti-woke digital outlet The Free Press, which would reportedly include installing its founder Bari Weiss as the news division’s editor in chief.
During the latest episode of his No BS Zone podcast, Bernie Goldberg – a former CBS News correspondent and Fox News contributor – said that he “wouldn’t be shocked” if Kelly ended up working for CBS News, claiming that she was spotted at the network’s headquarters recently.
“By the way, here’s something I’m revealing that nobody knows: a certain person whose name — I’ll tell you the name in a second — a certain famous person in the media was at CBS News the other day, doing what I’m told was a screen test. Meaning, seeing how it works on camera,” he declared.
After his co-host John A. Daly wondered if he was talking about disgraced ex-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Goldberg revealed that his scoop was actually about O’Reilly’s one-time colleague Kelly.
“No, I would’ve guessed that too,” Goldberg, who was a regular guest on O’Reilly’s Fox primetime show, responded. “No, Megyn Kelly. Megyn Kelly was at CBS News the other day. You heard it here, you’re not going to hear it anyplace else.”
After Goldberg’s remarks were picked up by Mediaite, however, Kelly – who has repeatedly insisted that she is no longer interested in returning to broadcast or cable news – took to social media to flat out deny the story.
“Literally not one word of this is true,” Kelly tweeted on Tuesday. “Was not at cbs, did not have a screen test, am not going to cbs, and have ZERO desire to leave what I am doing now and join the sinking ship of broadcast news. @mediaite - might want to - um, ASK ME b/4 printing.”
Following Kelly’s full-throated denial, Goldberg’s Substack page now includes the following editor’s note: “Megyn Kelly has responded that the meeting Bernie was told about, and comments on in this episode, between her and CBS News, did not occur.”
After more than a decade with Fox News, Kelly left the conservative cable giant in early 2017 for NBC News, which had given her a massive contract to host a Sunday news magazine and daytime talk show. Her time with the Peacock network came to an end in 2019, though, when she was terminated following backlash over comments she made about blackface.
Since leaving NBC, which saw the network pay her the remaining $30 million on her contract, Kelly has launched her own production company and the successful podcast The Megyn Kelly Show. Her podcast was picked up by SiriusXM in 2021, and the show’s YouTube channel has nearly 4 million subscribers.
The scuttled rumor over Kelly, who has become a Donald Trump loyalist after years of bad blood between the pair, potentially joining CBS News comes as the network appears to be cozying up to the president under Ellison’s ownership.
Prior to Paramount's merger with Ellison’s Skydance Media in August, the former Paramount leaders agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that CBS News’ lawyers said was “meritless.” The president has also claimed that Ellison agreed to a secret “side deal” that CBS would air $20 million of pro-Trump advertisements on CBS programming once Skydance took over the company.
On top of that, days before the merger was approved by the president’s handpicked FCC chief Brendan Carr, Paramount also announced that it was cancelling the top-rated CBS late-night show hosted by outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert. This was followed by Skydance assuring Carr that it would install an ombudsman to review “complaints of bias” at CBS News, as well as eliminate any diversity hiring policies.
Those pre-merger moves, which sparked accusations of “bribery” by free press organizations, liberal critics and CBS employees, have prompted an investigation by Democratic lawmakers.
Meanwhile, after saying “all the right things” when he took over as Paramount’s chief executive, CBS News staffers have apparently lost faith in Ellison and believe that he “just can’t be trusted” now.
Amid the “imminent” purchase of The Free Press and the appointment of Kenneth Weinstein – a Trump acolyte and conservative think tank leader – as the network’s ombudsman, network staffers told The Independent that Ellison is a “liar” for claiming he didn’t want to “politicize” the network.
“I mean, we all know that David Ellison is a liar and he just can't be trusted, and he can't be entrusted with the legacy of CBS News,” one staffer said.
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