Megyn Kelly, the news anchor who left Fox News for NBC and now hosts her own show on the network, has hit a new low, according to Page Six.
Kelly’s latest show included a big feature with Harvey Weinstein accuser Lauren Sivan, but it still wasn’t good enough to pull her out of her declining ratings.
Viewership for her daily morning show “Megyn Kelly Today” slipped from 0.77 ratings points on Monday to 0.54 ratings points on Tuesday of last week.
“It’s a possible all-time low for ‘Today.’ It may even be lower than her [Fox] cable show. [NBC News president] Noah [Oppenheim] and [NBC News and MSNBC chairman] Andy [Lack] are in big trouble,” an unnamed source told Page Six.
Another source added, “That’s a big drop. They have to turn this around.”
Recently, Kelly also appeared for the first time on MSNBC.
The source told Page Six that the appearance was unimaginable and a sign of Kelly’s sinking career.
“It’s unthinkable. You don’t see Matt [Lauer] or Savannah [Guthrie] on MSNBC … It’s not a good sign,” the source told Page Six.
Kelly’s poor ratings are also dragging down “Kathie Lee & Hoda,” the other morning hosts.
Page Six reported after Kelly’s hour of “Today” was down 32 percent as compared to a year ago, while “Kathie Lee & Hoda” fell 26 percent.
Network insiders are blaming the drop on Kelly’s “weak lead-in,” Page Six reported.
After several badly reviewed interviews and low ratings over the past few weeks since the show first launched, celebrities are reportedly beginning to blacklist the new NBC host.
Over the past weekend, publicists were telling their celebrity clients to avoid the third hour of Kelly’s show, according to Variety.
“I’m not booking anyone on her show,” one high-powered publicist “with a roster of big names” told Variety, “I literally haven’t pitched anyone even from right out the gate. The buzz that is out there is so bad.”
But just last Friday on Oct. 13, an NBC insider insisted that Kelly’s ratings were fine, Page Six reported.
“Megyn’s having a strong week. Her numbers are up double-digits versus last week,” and “NBC News anchors appear frequently on MSNBC,” the source said.
Kelly’s new show aims to reintroduce herself as someone likened to Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres, with a matching live studio audience. But the move is proving awkward for the former news anchor.
In her first week with the show, Kelly interviewed Jane Fonda, 79 to promote her new film, Our Souls at Night. But a question about plastic surgery didn’t translate well to Fonda.
Kelly: “You’ve been an example to everyone in how to age beautifully and with strength and unapologetically. You admit you’ve had work done, which I think is to your credit. But you look amazing … I read that you said, you felt not proud to admit you had work done. Why not?”
Fonda, after a long stare, appeared shocked: “We really want to talk about that now?”
From NTD.tv
