Megyn Kelly ‘Today’ Show Death Watch Hits Fever Pitch – NBC Confirms Exit Talks On Air

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With a pivotal meeting between Kelly’s lawyer and brbad at the Comcast-owned network scheduled for Friday, the writing has been on the wall for some time. Kelly, just one year into her three-year, $69 million contract, was off her 9 AM ET show Thursday and Friday and, confirmed by Today, is gone altogether. Only the details had to be resolved, after Kelly engaged in a game of Hollywood agency musical chairs.

Earlier this week, Kelly surprised NBC News with her spirited on-air defense of blackface Halloween costumes. The offensive remarks handed NBC News chief Andy Lack that final straw in his big-bucks experiment to bring more conservative fly-over country viewers to the morning show franchise with the addition of the outspoken Fox News lightning rod who prides herself on being “not pc.”

Meanwhile, reports that Kelly may return to the welcome arms of Fox News Channel began leaking water when Fox News began telling reporters seeking comment, via a spokeswoman, “we are extremely happy with our entire lineup.” This stands to reason, given the network’s primetime numbers: Sean Hannity is poised to have his highest-rated month in his FNC history; Tucker Carlson is No. 1 in his time slot in the news demo and total viewers, etc.

Lack, on Wednesday, held a town hall meeting with staff and kicked it off with a robust condemnation of Kelly’s latest attack of foot-in-mouth, setting in motion the Comcast Removal Marathon. Reporters Who Cover Television, whose nerves were fraying over the glacial pace at which it was unfolding – when a simple “Sorry, you’re bumming us out, get outta here” would do – began publishing headlines saying the removal was done.

Later, doing one of those celebrity interviews with Jane Fonda and Robert Redford in promotion of their new Netflix movie, Kelly did not grill Fonda about her politics. However, she found another way to derail the interview, setting up the actress with the compliment “You’ve been an example to everyone in how to age beautifully and with strength,” followed by the question, “I read that you said you felt you’re not proud to admit you’ve had work done. Why not?”

Months later, however, Kelly did play the Hanoi Jane Card when she said, on her show, that Fonda “has no business lecturing anyone on what qualifies as offensive” after Fonda got asked about that awkward encounter on Kelly’s show as she guested elsewhere.

One year after her NBC morning show debu Kelly did herself in this week when she asked her all-white panel, “What is racist?” during a discussion about a university cracking down on offensive Halloween costumes.

“Truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who put on whiteface for Halloween.,” Kelly said.

“When I was a kid it was okay, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”