Megyn Kelly’s career at NBC is off to a rocky start.
She’s swamped with controversy, and her ratings are in the tank.
Now she just got news that could spell the end of it all.
The first two episodes of Kelly’s Sunday night news magazine were poorly received.
They were both beaten by reruns of 60 Minutes.
Network executives and Kelly hoped her interview with the controversial InfoWars host Alex Jones would turn the tide.
Jones spent the week leading up to the interview blasting Kelly for deceptive tactics and airing phone calls and footage that showed Kelly was promising to air a fair piece that Jones would get some positive reviews over.
Liberal journalists stoked the controversy by demanding NBC pull the interview.
Sponsors fled the show as the firestorm surrounding the episode raged.
There’s an old saying in the entertainment industry – the only bad publicity is no publicity at all.
Kelly and her interview with Alex Jones dominated the media landscape for a solid week.
But the reaction from viewers was a collective yawn.
Kelly once again flopped in the ratings.
She suffered humiliation not only by losing to a rerun of 60 Minutes, but to a repeat of America’s Funniest Home Videos too.
Not exactly must see TV: Megyn Kelly's Sunday night show (f/ the Alex Jones interview) gets 3.5 m. viewers, beaten by "60 Mins" 5.3 m.
— John Koblin (@koblin) June 19, 2017
Down in the 25-54 demo, too.
Putin interview – 572k
Erin Andrews interview – 460k
Alex Jones interview – 345kper mm overnights. https://t.co/D6CXMfGqrh
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) June 19, 2017
Even liberal critics who wanted to see Jones embarrassed were let down by the interview.
Maya Kosoff of Vanity Fair treated the interview with a shrug of the shoulders.
She wrote:
“On the heels of a mostly toothless, poorly-received interview with Vladimir Putin during the premiere of her new NBC News show last Sunday, Megyn Kelly’s interview tonight with Alex Jones, right-wing polemicist and the host of InfoWars, offered an opportunity for the network’s newest star to redeem herself. Instead, after sparking a week of controversy that blew up in NBC’s face, the interview served as a little more than a tepid primer for audiences unfamiliar with the far-right internet video host.”
Kelly’s poor ratings are an issue.
Her show is already scheduled for a hiatus once football season starts, which is when NBC will air their Sunday night football telecast.
But based on her poor ratings, the hiatus could be permanent.
