Firing Megyn Kelly may have cost NBC a rumored $79 million, but it’s doing wonders for the Today show’s ratings. Go figure.
As you may recall, 47-year-old Kelly was canned from the Today show last month after making racist comments defending blackface. She is now purportedly demanding a huge severance package, claiming NBC “ruined her career.”
Related: “It’s all out war”: Megyn Kelly wants NBC to pay her $79 million for “destroying her career”
Meanwhile, Daily Beast reports:
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According to just-released weekly Nielsen averages—figures provided to The Daily Beast by a media outlet that is not connected to NBC or its parent company, Comcast—the week after Kelly’s October 26 departure and the abrupt demise of Megyn Kelly Today, total viewership for Today’s third hour actually increased by 5 percent—from 2,522,000 during Kelly’s final week on the air to 2,649,000 during the week beginning Oct. 29.
Significantly, this post-Kelly ratings spike occurred despite a slight falloff in total viewers (a decrease from 3,832,000 to 3,747,000) experienced week-over-week by Today’s 8 a.m. block, the lead-in to the third hour of the four-hour Today franchise.
Not just that, but NBC’s two most important target demographic groups–women 18-49 and women 25-54–both saw immediate upticks following Kelly’s exit. Women 18-49 increased by an impressive 10%, while women 25-54 spiked by 6%, which will no doubt make advertisers very happy.
Television news analyst Andrew Tyndall says the spike in viewership isn’t terribly surprising given how much people disliked Kelly.
“That absolutely comes as no surprise at all,” he explains. “She was a speed bump placed right in the middle of a four-hour block of programming–dismantling the sense of teamwork on that set and the flow that will get you all the way through from the hard news at 7 a.m. to the light talk through 11 o’clock.”
Related: Blackface apologist Megyn Kelly deserves the hell she’s getting–and much more
Terrycloth
I used to watch the today show. I stopped watching because they all talk at once talk over each other..used to be news show now it’s all celebrities and fluff..they also NEVER have enough time for the cooking segments and have to hurry through it..I dont particularly care for the addition of Craig Melvin .its like Matt Lauer and Bryant Gumble had a kid its Craig…Hoda must be high all the time she smiles and laughs at everything..Kathy lee makes it about her and shes interuptive..I’ll keep watching CBS this morning
o.codone
Terry, I think Craig Melvin is a doll baby. But the rest of what you say is definitely true. The show is by women, for women and about women. No news, just celebrities and fluff, and cooking.
Lacuevaman
MSNBC
Geeker
WOW…You mean people didn’t enjoy watching and listening to a dumb racist hatemonger?…Shocking!
frankcar1965
The bitch always looked like a nasty porn slut to me. Which means she’ll be on Fox next. All their women look like porn skanks.
Creamsicle
She already burned her bridges at Fox by asking Trump non-softball questions during the 2016 election debates. A woman questioning the Dear Leader cannot be tolerated.
My guess is that she’s going to try launching her own news outlet, possibly a magazine, even though print media has been dying since 2000. When it starts to flail, she’ll start selling “nutriceuticals” (overpriced vitamin supplements) to her aging fanbase and become Alex Jones with a Goop twist.
OzJosh
Kelly may be playing for a $79m payout, but she’s more likely to get a big fat zero.
russellhm
She will always be considered a FOX fraud although she was correct to denounce Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly. But she lacked the personality that the Today Show is known for. I always found her brassy and crude.
Creamsicle
She thought that she was a brand maker, like O’Reilly or Hannity, when she was really just a pretty face to fill the spots between the heavy hitters at Fox.
I don’t know why NBC thought people would magically forget her decade+ stint on Fox, pushing the conservative Ailes agenda.
Sure she didn’t immediately roll over for candidate Donald Trump. That doesn’t make her a progressive hero. A ton of Never Trumpers were still holding out for the other Republican candidates at that point.
davincibarnette
Hahahahahaaa NBC ruined her career!! She’s nuts.
DCguy
Andy Lack at NBC tried to turn it into FOX News lite. He tried to nudge out Lawrence O’Donnell who has MSNBC’s second highest ratings, and bring in Gretta Van Sustran and Megyn Kelly from FOX.
Well Greta bombed, Megyn committed journalistic suicide, and ratings are up since they have been ousted. But Lack still has a job.