Megyn Kelly's tenure at NBC was mired in controversy from the start.
Before the longtime Fox News commentator started at the network, many wondered how she'd transition from hosting a prime-time, politics-focused program with a largely conservative audience, "The Kelly File," to a lighthearted, conversation-based morning show for NBC.
Her salary _ widely reported to be worth $69 million over three years _added to the lofty expectations, as did the fact that NBC cleared out the popular third hour of the "Today" show, which was hosted by Tamron Hall and Al Roker, to give Kelly her own show. The displaced Hall left the network after her contract expired shortly afterward, despite NBC's efforts to keep her.
Then came the on-air drama.
Kelly made her debut on NBC with the first episode of her newsmagazine show "Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly" on June 4, 2017. Two weeks later, she faced backlash for featuring an interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones _ who has touted theories that 9/11 was carried out by the American government and that the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged.
Before that interview aired, Jones released a video of a conversation he had with Kelly in which she told him he wouldn't be depicted in the piece as "some kind of bogeyman." The episode rated poorly, finishing behind Fox's coverage of the U.S. Golf Open Championship, CBS' "60 Minutes" and "America's Funniest Home Videos on ABC."
Kelly's morning show, "Megyn Kelly Today," also got off to an ugly start.
The show's premiere in September 2017 included a sit-down with the stars of "Will & Grace," and toward the end of the segment Kelly surprised a "super-fan" in the audience and brought him onstage to meet the cast. She then jokingly asked him if Will, played by Eric McCormack, inspired him to be gay and to become a lawyer, like the character is on the show.
"I don't know about the lawyer thing, but I think the 'Will & Grace' thing and the gay thing is going to work out great," Kelly told the fan.
Debra Messing, who stars as Grace on the recently rebooted show, later wrote on Instagram that she regretted going on Kelly's program and was "dismayed by her comments."
Later that week, another guest, Jane Fonda, took issue when Kelly asked the actress about some of her past comments about regretting getting plastic surgery.
"We really want to talk about that now?" said Fonda, who appeared on the show to promote a movie, "Our Souls at Night."
Kelly did have success on her show for poignant discussions and interviews about the #MeToo movement, including bringing women on to tell their stories.
But the show struggled in the ratings, and Ben Bogardus, an assistant journalism professor at Quinnipiac University, believes there are multiple reasons why Kelly hasn't worked out at NBC, including that she may have been viewed as an "outsider" who came from another network with a big contract and took a timeslot previously filled by the well-liked Hall and Roker.
"It didn't work out because it really didn't fit with her personality," Bogardus said. "She is a former lawyer. She has a very aggressive, adversarial interviewing style. To suddenly sit her down and do celebrity interviews and fluff just kind of clashed with her personality. I think viewers picked up on that. They're used to seeing her in one context, and they had trouble seeing her as a light and fluffy morning anchor that they wanted to sit down and have a cup of coffee with."
The latest controversy centered on Kelly defending wearing blackface as a Halloween costume and questioning whether doing so should be considered racist. In the segment, which aired Tuesday, Kelly referenced the controversy caused by "Real Housewives of New York" star Luann de Lesseps when she appeared to make her skin look darker for a Diana Ross costume for Halloween.
"People said that that was racist," Kelly said. "And I thought, 'Who doesn't love Diana Ross?' She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day. I don't know how, like, that got racist on Halloween. It's not like she's walking around (like that) in general."
She has since apologized for her comments _ first in an email to her colleagues Tuesday, then in her opening segment on Wednesday's show _ and admitted she was wrong.
Kelly drew heat in 2013 when she asserted during a Fox News segment that Jesus and Santa Claus are white. Angelo Carusone _ the president of Media Matters, a nonprofit watchdog organization _ said a prominent feature of her program at Fox involved preying on racial anxieties, making it a questionable move for NBC to bring her aboard.
"At minimum, I think it was a bad business decision to hire her without any demonstration or proof that she can change her business model, and not at least insulate yourself from the very strong likelihood that she would engage in some, or cause some racially inflammatory controversy," said Carusone, whose organization is calling for NBC to fire Kelly.
.png?w=600)
