Fox News In Chaos After Megyn Kelly Bolts To NBC

Megyn Kelly’s decision to dump Fox News for NBC is a blow to Fox News that has sent their primetime lineup into upheaval and continued the rippling chaos at the cable news leader that goes back to the Roger Ailes scandal.

NBC announced a massive deal with Kelly in a press release:
Megyn Kelly, one of America’s most prominent news anchors, will join NBC News, it was announced today by Andrew Lack, Chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group.

Kelly will become anchor of a new one hour daytime program that she will develop closely with NBC News colleagues. The show will air Monday through Friday at a time to be announced in the coming months.

As part of the multi-year agreement, Kelly will also anchor a new Sunday evening news magazine show and will become an important contributor to NBC’s breaking news coverage as well as the network’s political and special events coverage.

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The move was a no-brainer for Kelly. Fox News’s audience of roughly 2 million daily viewers is dwarfed by broadcast television. Kelly got a gig that every anchor on cable news would kill for.

Before it became official, The New York Times summed up what the deal means for Fox News, “Ms. Kelly’s departure would upend Fox News’s vaunted prime-time lineup and inject a new dose of tumult just a few months after the departure of the network’s powerful founding chairman, Roger Ailes, who was ousted after several women made allegations that he sexually harassed them.”

Fox News has lost the future face of their network. Kelly has been groomed a promoted for years to be the person who takes over 8 PM ET from Bill O’Reilly. Kelly and her second biggest viewership on cable news are gone, and Fox is left with a giant hole in their network, and contrary to what the Murdoch family wants to believe, the network has a thin bench with no stars the size of Kelly in waiting.

The lack of depth at Fox News was typified by the fact that they tapped a perennial cable news retread, Tucker Carlson, to take over 7 PM after Greta Van Susteren departed.

Fox News is not as strong today as they were yesterday, as the cable news leader is in the midst of transition and crisis.



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