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What’s Next for Megyn Kelly?
NY Mag ^ | 5/20/2016 | Gabriel Sherman

Posted on 05/20/2016 9:24:07 PM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel

Megyn Kelly’s much-publicized broadcast special with Donald Trump was supposed to launch the Fox News star into the stratosphere of television anchordom. Instead, the widely panned show seems to have achieved the opposite result: It exposed the extent of her limited mainstream appeal. Kelly drew just 4.8 million viewers on Tuesday night, a number television executives say is a disappointment by any measure. Three senior executives I spoke with say an audience of 9 million would have been a success. "Not good for her at all," was how one insider put it.

In the days since, Kelly has been working to contain the fallout. She took aim at critics on her cable show Wednesday night by deploying an age-old Fox News tactic: claiming the backlash was a result of liberal media bias. But behind the scenes, she is said to be worried about the response. “She’s very upset with the show reaction, and in hindsight with how it was produced,” one Fox veteran told me.

The stakes for Kelly are high. As the Times recently reported, she’s in the final year of her contract and has been on a media blitz campaigning for a bigger job at Fox or another network. In recent interviews, she’s said her ambition is to be a combination of Oprah, Charlie Rose, and Barbara Walters. The special was essentially a public interview for her next job. But Kelly's chummy treatment of Trump may have damaged her brand as tough and fair-minded (this being Fox, the bar was pretty low). Worse, she cozied up to Trump at the very moment Rupert Murdoch decided Fox News will support the GOP front-runner. By lobbing softballs — or, as Times TV critic James Poniewozik described her questions, "airballs" — at Trump, Kelly came across like any other GOP cheerleader at the right-wing network.

The question for Kelly and her agents at CAA is where to go from here. Before the special, she had maneuvered herself into a position of significant leverage over her boss Roger Ailes and seemed poised to land either a new deal from Fox with a salary in the $25 million range or a plum job at another network. Industry sources said Ailes couldn’t afford to lose Kelly. Now her advantage looks smaller — a turn of events that surely pleases Ailes. According to one Fox insider, Ailes was heard “snickering” in a meeting yesterday when the topic of Kelly’s special came up in conversation. (Ailes's spokesperson Irena Briganti did not respond to a request for comment.)

For their part, Kelly's team doesn't seem eager to talk about the program. When I called her CAA agent Matt DelPiano to ask him about the special, he hung up.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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To: A CA Guy

Check with Brit. He probably has the scoop. Maybe it’s mean of me, but I’m glad to see this. Megan, Kristol, Beck and Levin, Perino, Gutfeld are all off my TV and radio. They aren’t worried about “conservatism”..or this country. Sadly, Rush has become just like them. Who’d have thunk it?


41 posted on 05/20/2016 11:30:50 PM PDT by Shortstop7
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To: Yaelle

LOL. Nailed it.


42 posted on 05/20/2016 11:31:14 PM PDT by Shortstop7
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To: Vision Thing

It looks like she’s decompressing in the picture on the right. LOL?


43 posted on 05/20/2016 11:31:19 PM PDT by Rastus (#NeverHillary)
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To: Rastus
Oops. Forgot the picture.


44 posted on 05/20/2016 11:32:42 PM PDT by Rastus (#NeverHillary)
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To: JerseyDvl

Me too. Boycotting Megyn Kelly is too easy. She is becoming a better Kardashian than the Kardasians.


45 posted on 05/20/2016 11:33:47 PM PDT by RitaOK (Viva Christo Rey. Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming-- infinitum.)
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To: hal ogen
Next? Porn?

Hasn't she had a few kids? Porn is out of the question, no one want to see that................

46 posted on 05/20/2016 11:33:56 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

When you have little or no other talent, you take your clothes off. Meh.


47 posted on 05/20/2016 11:36:28 PM PDT by r_barton (GO TRUMP!!!)
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To: Arthur McGowan

Arthur ! You put the “see” in Conspiracy :)


48 posted on 05/20/2016 11:44:22 PM PDT by onona (Honey this isn't Kindergarten. We are in an all out war for the survival of our Country !)
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To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

she has to be seething over these articles this week, and Ailes has to be licking his chops over the upcoming contract negotiations.


49 posted on 05/20/2016 11:47:10 PM PDT by Bubba Gump Shrimp (A Liberal is someone who cannot accept that there is a Law of Unintended Consequences)
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To: Talisker

LOL!


50 posted on 05/20/2016 11:47:58 PM PDT by Bubba Gump Shrimp (A Liberal is someone who cannot accept that there is a Law of Unintended Consequences)
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To: Rastus

She’s had some work done. She looks a lot different in these pictures compared to now.


51 posted on 05/20/2016 11:48:03 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (The day Trump is sworn in I'm changing my screen name.)
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To: Bubba Gump Shrimp

Ailes would want the ratings more than seeing her value drop. If he’s snickering it’s to save his own ass.


52 posted on 05/20/2016 11:49:28 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (The day Trump is sworn in I'm changing my screen name.)
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To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

See that man behind the curtain. No, it’s not Alfred Hitchcock, it’s Roger Ailes, he’s smiling ear to ear and eating an oversized SNICKER’S BAR right in front of Megyn. She pretends not to notice.


53 posted on 05/21/2016 12:14:44 AM PDT by lee martell
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To: Talisker

I haven’t seen anything this disturbing since the Zapruter film. ;-)


54 posted on 05/21/2016 12:20:23 AM PDT by r_barton (GO TRUMP!!!)
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To: arl295

Hey, I’m watching RedEye right now.


55 posted on 05/21/2016 12:22:16 AM PDT by gigster (Cogito, Ergo, Ronaldus Magnus headsConservatus)
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To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

Guest Host on Jerry Springer Show?


56 posted on 05/21/2016 12:46:25 AM PDT by BAW (It's gunna be Yuge!)
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To: Rastus

Now she has the BDSM look.


57 posted on 05/21/2016 1:04:18 AM PDT by zencycler
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To: A CA Guy

She’s already on #2, so #3 will be much older and filthy rich.


58 posted on 05/21/2016 1:13:09 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Cruz never could have outfought Trump.But I didn't know until this day that it was Romney all along.)
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To: zencycler

I was actually making a joke at her expense but forgot to include the picture. Now it looks like I was posting that om her support. :/


59 posted on 05/21/2016 1:14:31 AM PDT by Rastus (#NeverHillary)
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To: arl295

Move Greta back to 9 that was her time spot that Me Again stole


60 posted on 05/21/2016 1:56:20 AM PDT by hoosiermama (W1237 in Under budget. Ahead of schedule! Go TRUMP GO)
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