Anchor Becomes the News as Megyn Kelly Leaves Fox News for NBC
Megyn Kelly’s new office at NBC News sits a block north of Fox News headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. But it might as well be a world away.
In switching networks at a pivotal point in her career, Ms. Kelly, the No. 2-rated personality in cable television news, is taking a calculated risk that she can swap her dedicated Fox audience for the broader, but more fickle, viewership of network television.
There are challenges from the get-go. Her splashy arrival has the potential to fray nerves among the big personalities at the network — who already compete against one another for interviews and scoops. Ms. Kelly, 46, will also be taking on a daytime talk show format that has been a virtual graveyard for television news personalities in the last 10 years.
And the new Sunday newsmagazine show that NBC plans to build around Ms. Kelly will go up against a giant that has not been meaningfully challenged for decades: “60 Minutes” on CBS.
Still, Ms. Kelly is a bona fide star with a best-selling book and a breakout role in this year’s presidential campaign, when she clashed with Donald J. Trump. NBC News comes out the winner in one of the most closely watched talent sweepstakes in years, acquiring one of television’s biggest names who could play a role in any number of major network events, like coverage of elections or the Olympics.
Interviews on Tuesday with network executives and producers — from Fox, NBC and other rival channels — suggest that Ms. Kelly’s performance at NBC will be as closely watched in the industry as her past few months of contract negotiations.
Ms. Kelly will have to design her daytime talk show from scratch. Even though she made her name as a news anchor, she has argued that she is not obsessed with politics. When she hosted a prime-time special on Fox in May — her first major foray outside cable news — she expressed a desire to combine the qualities of Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters and Charlie Rose.
That special — which featured interviews with Mr. Trump, the celebrity lawyer Robert Shapiro and the actress Laverne Cox — received middling reviews. It was far from a ratings hit: Among adults younger than 50, the demographic most important to broadcasters, Ms. Kelly’s special performed about as well as ABC’s “Beyond the Tank,” a reality-show spinoff.
A daily daytime talk show also poses risks. Big-name talent like Jane Pauley, Meredith Vieira, Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper have taken a stab at the genre in the past, and each one failed. In Ms. Pauley’s case, NBC invested millions of dollars, but the show was yanked in 2005 after just one year.
NBC said on Tuesday that Ms. Kelly’s show was expected to be closer to a news program than the typical daytime talk show, although it is unclear what exactly that will mean or how much appetite there is for news amid a landscape including shows like “Days of Our Lives,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Steve Harvey.” The audience for daytime television is also significantly more diverse than Fox’s prime-time viewership.
Starting a Sunday rival to “60 Minutes,” the standard-bearer among newsmagazines, is likewise no easy task.
“Rock Center,” which Brian Williams hosted, lasted two seasons. NBC’s most recent newsmagazine, “On Assignment,” ran head-to-head against “60 Minutes” over five weeks; the show averaged about four million viewers, compared with more than nine million for “60 Minutes,” which broadcast two repeats during that time. (This season, “60 Minutes” is averaging more than 14 million viewers.)
It is also unclear how NBC will accommodate Ms. Kelly’s show during the National Football League season, when NBC’s popular “Sunday Night Football” package includes a highly rated pregame show that begins at 7 p.m. Eastern.
But Andrew Lack, NBC News’s chairman, has long had newsmagazines in his blood. In addition to overseeing a “60 Minutes” competitor on CBS in the 1980s, Mr. Lack presided over NBC in the 1990s when newsmagazines, including the network’s popular “Dateline,” dominated prime-time lineups.
Fox, meanwhile, must now set a course without one of its biggest names, as the network continues to recalibrate itself after the ouster of its chairman, Roger Ailes.
Ms. Kelly’s exit from Fox News was so abrupt that it was announced on the day that the network had run a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal trumpeting the ratings of its prime-time lineup, with Ms. Kelly prominently pictured.
Her departure stunned the Fox newsroom, where journalists and executives spent Tuesday afternoon speculating over which anchor might replace Ms. Kelly in the coveted 9 p.m. slot — and wondering if Ms. Kelly would even appear that night.
When Greta Van Susteren, another veteran anchor, announced her departure in September, network representatives visited her home to tell her not to bother coming in.
In the end, Ms. Kelly was granted a chance to bid farewell to Fox News viewers — her last show is Friday. It is not clear who will replace her.
Fox News has never had an all-male prime-time lineup. Potential replacements being floated inside the network on Tuesday include four women who have regularly filled in for Ms. Kelly: Sandra Smith, a host of Fox’s noon show, “Outnumbered”; Trish Regan, a rising star at Fox Business Network; Shannon Bream, who covers the Supreme Court; and Martha MacCallum, a morning anchor.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, a host of “The Five” who is friendly with Mr. Trump’s circle, and Tucker Carlson, who has put up high ratings since taking over Fox News’s 7 p.m. slot, have also been suggested. Sean Hannity, whose viewership at 10 p.m. increased enormously in 2016 and has spiked since Election Day, could be moved up an hour, but his momentum in his time slot may make Fox executives reluctant to make a switch.
One winner in the sweepstakes for Ms. Kelly could be CNN, even though it did not succeed in recruiting her. CNN, while still behind Fox News in total viewers by a wide margin, has occasionally beaten Fox among viewers 25 to 54, the demographic that determines advertising rates.
In 2016, CNN finished within 58,000 viewers of Fox in prime time in the demographic — cutting Fox’s lead in half. Since the election, Fox has regained a sizable lead, but now, without spending a penny, CNN will now have an opportunity to take another run at Fox’s prime-time advantage.
P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/business/media/megyn-kelly-leaves-fox-news-for-nbc.html?_r=0
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