Megyn Kelly is out at NBC, just 48 hours after her controversial blackface comments on the network’s morning show Today, sources tell The Daily Mail. In the past 24 hours, she was also dropped by her talent agency, CAA. Kelly is now fighting over whether the network will pay out her entire $69 million contract, which NBC is set to do unless it can prove that she violated a clause in some way.
Kelly left Fox News in January 2017 to join NBC News, where until this week she hosted Megyn Kelly Today for the network’s 9 a.m. morning slot. The program was already suffering from low ratings and controversial moves like an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but now it seems that Kelly’s blackface comments were the final straw for NBC.
“But what is racist?” asked Kelly during Tuesday’s Megyn Kelly Today taping. “Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.” She apologized for her comments on the following day’s broadcast, but was absent from the show today, Oct. 25.
“Given the circumstances, Megyn Kelly Today will be on tape the rest of the week,” said an NBC News representative, and the network indeed aired a rerun this morning.