After facing backlash following her controversial comments on NBC, Megyn Kelly has left the television network with a $30 million dollar payout. Last October, Megyn Kelly made comments saying that she did not understand why wearing blackface on Halloween would be perceived as racist. After the remarks were heard across the nation, she decided to part ways with NBC.
Megyn Kelly is a known as a former Fox News anchor who departed the television station in 2017. The reason for her departure from Fox News stemmed from her hatred for Donald Trump and his association with the news channel. Kelly covered a large variety of different stories during her time as a reporter, which followed by her obtaining her own show. After the show began, political stories became more regular on her show and President Donald Trump began taking notice. Megyn began to notice that she had not enjoyed being on the political side of the news, and it did not align with her morals and values. Once she realized this is not what she wanted to do, she decided to leave and pursue her own show.
Her show was titled "Megyn Kelly Today", and premiered in September 2017. At its premiere, it received negative reviews for the quality of her hosting and appropriateness as a daytime personality. According to multiple reports, her departure was planned months before it was announced. Megyn was in talks of moving to MSNBC, but she did not see it as the right fit and she did not think that the audience of the network would accept her. She began talks with the chairman of NBC, Andy Lack, about her concerns regarding the show. Around the one year anniversary of the premiere of the snow, Megyn knew that the show was not as big of a hit as expected, and she decided she needed to take the necessary steps towards a new future.
Megyn wanted to lean towards a talk show host such as Oprah or Charlie Rose. She said she wanted to help people and wanted to steer away from politics. However, it was difficult for her to separate from her Fox News reputation. She is not able to return to the news network because she left on bad terms, after discussing sexual harassment claims against the channel's co-founder, Roger Ailes. After facing backlash from these claims with Fox News, she then began facing more negativity surrounding her show.
After a panel discussing the appropriateness of blackface in Halloween costume, Megyn noted that you 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. According to Kelly, she believed this to be okay when she dressed up for Halloween when she was younger as long as you were dressing up like a character. Later that day, she apologized for the comments and realized that people need to be more sensitive in the world today. She then joined African-American journalists regarding controversies that blackface brings. After these comments were made, Kelly still received a payout of $30 million dollars from her $69 million dollar contract.
