Kelly, 47, still has two years left in her deal despite the fact that the networkcanceledher hour of theTodayshow following hercontroversial remarksabout blackface.
While discussing attempts at universities to discourage “inappropriate and offensive costumes” on Tuesday, the former Fox News host asked: “But what is racist? Because truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character.”
Still, herfuture at the network at large remains unclear. Kelly’s attorney toldVarietyin a statement: “Megyn remains an employee of NBC News and discussions about next steps are continuing.”
“NBC is having discussions and negotiating with Megyn’s lawyer right now,” one source confirms to PEOPLE.
“Conversations have begun about her exit from the network,” a second source says. “She’s not sticking around NBC News. It’s unclear when there will be a definitive announcement.”
Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Kelly announced her decision to leave Fox andjoin NBC Newsin January 2017,debuting her daytime talk showthat September. But she made headlines for someawkward moments with guestsand her political conservatism. Moreover, her dogged coverage of the #MeToo movement (and especially firedTodayanchorMatt Lauer‘s allegedsexual misconduct) reportedly ruffled feathers internally. The blackface panel was apparently the last straw.
Plus,Today’sthird hourfell 13 percentin the Nielsen ratings after Kelly took over.
“You’ve seen her ratings,” the source says. “There was a desire to make it work. They could have fired her based on the ratings alone, but they were supporting her and the show. She had some momentum in August and September, and they wanted to make it work. But people were so upset with what she said. Who was going to come on her show? Who was she going to book? People were saying they’d never come back.”
However, a source close to Kelly denies that she has been let go from NBC and insists the matter has not been resolved yet.
“She’s in talks about her exit. They don’t want her there, and she doesn’t want to be there,” that source says. “She wanted to leave anyway. She’s been unhappy at NBC. She’s not happy about how this went down, but she wanted to leave.”
She won’t do that, though, until she gets her money, a source close to production says: “When it happened, we knew she wasn’t going to go quietly, and she didn’t. She didn’t go quietly at all; there have been all sorts of meetings. It’s all anybody talks about.”
“Megyn wasn’t going to just fade away,” that source adds. “She wasn’t going to give up this hour without a fight, and from what I understand, it’s still going on.”
Craig Melvin,Hoda Kotb,Jenna Bush Hager, andAl Rokerfilled Kelly’s time slot Monday morning — the first live show since NBC confirmed on Friday thatMegyn Kelly Todayhad been canceled. The production source says that compared to the rest of theTodayteam, “Megyn was never really a great fit.”
“She was too controversial and polarizing, and she didn’t ever really gel with everyone. There aren’t a lot of people who are going to cry about her leaving,” the source explains. “The feeling around here is very much family, and she didn’t seem like a member of the family. She’s a good journalist and probably a good person, but her style didn’t fit in around here.”
Reps for Kelly and NBC declined to comment. Kelly’s attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Maria Pasquini
andMichele Corriston
Michele Corriston
source: people.com
