Megyn Kelly’s career at NBC is continuing on a downward spiral.
Her jump from Fox News and her feud with Donald Trump were the biggest mistakes of her life.
Now she’s suffered a massive embarrassment that she never saw coming.
Today Show host Matt Lauer was set to co-anchor the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies.
But he was bounced from the network after being caught up in a sexual misconduct scandal.
Kelly – who anchors the 9 AM hour of the Today Show – figured she was a natural replacement.
That was not the case.
NBC passed on Kelly and instead tapped former Today Show co-anchor Katie Couric for the job.
Kelly pitched a fit – and only added fuel to the reports that network executives refer to her as a “diva” – after losing out on the plum assignment.
New York Post reported:
Megyn Kelly “threw an Olympic fit” when NBC offered the job of anchoring next month’s Winter Olympics opening ceremony to Katie Couric, sources exclusively told Page Six…
…But once “Today” vet Matt Lauer — who usually helmed special coverage, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — was ousted in November over sexual misconduct allegations, Kelly assumed she was next in line for the plum assignments.
“She thought she had it all played out perfectly, by saying ‘no’ before the Matt Lauer scandal. [The network was] stupid enough to put in her contract that she could say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ ”
But we’re told that after execs instead gave the gig to Couric — who co-hosted the “Today” show with Lauer from 1997 to 2006, at which point she left the network — Kelly wanted to have it on principle. “[Kelly] complained to her staff, she complained to her agent, so that [NBC News chairman Andrew Lack] would hear about the fact that she was unhappy, but he didn’t care.”
The source added that Lack — who originally signed Kelly to the network amid much fanfare in January 2017, starting with “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly” in June — has finally realized she is “a diva” and that “she’s not going to be part of the NBC News . . . inner circle.”
NBC executives may have been more willing to give Kelly the benefit of the doubt and send her to South Korea had she seen more success with her programs.
But her Sunday night news magazine program circled the drain until it was yanked from the schedule before its run was supposed to end.
And her 9 AM show has been plagued by low ratings and awkward interactions with celebrity guests.
She has feuded with Jane Fonda and seen agents steer their clients away from her program.
NBC overpaid for Kelly – who turned out to be an overrated anchor.
She had no real audience outside of the Fox News machine.
By sidelining her for the Winter Olympics they are sending a strong signal that they made a major mistake.
