The biggest cable news star of the 2016 election is strangely unemployed, and she’s looking to make her way back into the national discussion in time for the 2020 election.
Megyn Kelly and people close to her are putting out word she’s ready to return to the news business six months after she was fired from NBC for low ratings and a really stupid controversy.
A person close to Kelly told me Monday they’re watching the town halls with each of the Democratic presidential candidates and seeing an opening.
“No other journalist has her skill set and knowledge to follow up in interviews, to go layers deep and reveal important moments to the viewer,” they said. “Most journalists now are delivering points of view with no substance.”
Kelly wants to do what she was doing before — to interview and debate big names in politics, favoring neither Republicans nor Democrats. She was good at it at Fox News and her confrontation with then-candidate Donald Trump during a 2015 Republican primary debate was one of the most memorable moments of the campaign. It was probably the moment that turned Trump into the frontrunner for the party’s nomination.
The problem for Kelly is that she tried to be something she’s not, a fact she’s aware of, according to the person close to her. She’s not Katie Couric, and her stint as a daytime host at NBC proved it. She apologized in October after questioning whether it was OK to wear costumes of other races during Halloween, and then she was let go anyway, though Steve Burke, NBC’s top executive, took responsibility for her show’s flat performance. He told Variety in January that Kelly was “a huge talent” and that her morning program was “the wrong time of day for her.”
A prime time producer at Fox told me, though, that it’s probably not in the cards for her — at least not there. “She’s viewed as damaged goods,” they said, adding that Fox executives like their current programming lineup.
The person close to Kelly told me that she has no specific outlet in mind, anyway. She’s looking for “big opportunities” with impact. As she readies for her comeback, she’s enjoying her free time, even as other media outlets have requested meetings with her.
I don’t know whether she can get back into the role she wants. But Fox would be smart to put her back on air, even if just as a legal analyst to start, given her background as a lawyer.
Fox should take her. If they won’t, someone else will.
