Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly has been ousted from her daytime show at NBC and is expected to be paid the remainder of her $69 million-three year contract, The Daily Mail and New York Post reported Thursday.
An NBC spokesperson did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.
Kelly’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman — who is considered a top Hollywood attorney she recently hired, according to CNN — will reportedly meet with NBC News executives on Friday to discuss Kelly’s role at NBC, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
According to the New York Post, Freedman has requested that journalist Ronan Farrow — who has claimed that NBC did not want to run his Harvey Weinstein expose that won him a Pulitzer at the New Yorker– be in the room during the meeting, which will likely center on Kelly’s views that NBC has been hypocritical.
According to a source close to the situation who spoke to Hollywood Reporter, Kelly finds it questionable that NBC aired an episode of a Real Housewives of New York cast member wearing blackface, when she has faced such severe backlash for her defense of blackface for Halloween costumes.
She apologized to her colleagues via email on Tuesday and opened her show on Wednesday with an apology for not knowing the racist history of blackface until this week.
While the New York Post is reporting that the decision to oust Kelly was fueled by her blackface controversy, both CNN and Variety reported Thursday that talks of cancelling “Megyn Kelly Today” started before the latest scandal.
NBC aired a rerun from Aug. 31 in the show’s time slot on Thursday and they will run tapes again Friday, an NBC spokesperson told TPM Thursday.
“Not being on air is the kiss of death!” a source inside NBC told the New York Post.
Variety reported that Kelly was interested in taking on a new position within the network, but Kelly reportedly has a contentious relationship with NBC News Chairman Andy Lack.
