Updated at 12:45 p.m. Oct. 25, 2018.
NBC bet the house and lost. Megyn Kelly, a valued get to the tune of millions of dollars, was not on TV this morning. And she won't be on the next morning, either. According to People magazine, her show is canceled.
They tell you not to make lasting decisions from temporary circumstances. It feels as if NBC was a victim of moving too fast, thinking too little and not heeding any warnings. It was hubris; there was a bidding war for the talents of Kelly and NBC wanted to get the win.
Kelly's beginnings on the Today show were covered in salt. Fan favorites -- and ratings winners -- Tamron Hall and Al Roker were displaced for her show.
It was a messy situation that some watchers knew would only get more intense.
Still, I watched, as did many. Give her a chance, I told people; the laid-back morning show routine might be just what she needs. And then the watching turned into the time-honored tradition of hate-watching.
Many will want to point to Kelly's comments about blackface as the reason for any talk of ending her show. I'm here to tell you that it's much more simple than that: Megyn Kelly Today was plain bad.
There was no cohesion. It seemed there was no direction. And, like her comments about blackface being OK when she was younger, it didn't make a whole lot of sense.
In one minute, Kelly would be doing a jailhouse phone interview with an infamous killer or shining light on the #metoo movement. And then, whiplash. Now, she's talking about new fashion trends or a dog or trying to go the Oprah route by giving away prizes to the audience.
And making anyone watching long for the next hour with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford.
Ratings for Kelly's portion of the Today show had been lackluster since the beginning, especially when compared to when Hall and Roker hosted that hour. NBC News Chief Andy Lack had probably been dreaming of an escape route for months. And when Lack blasted her in a staff meeting, well, that's a vote of no confidence if I ever saw one.
(I always hate to say I told you so. But I did.)
None of that is to excuse her comments, which just seemed borne of ignorance rather than malicious intent. But then again, this is the woman who assured children that Jesus and Santa are white. This is the woman who said the teen in McKinney manhandled by a police officer was "no saint." No matter. Social media moves fast and so does Hollywood, it seems, when motivated.
Deadline reports that Kelly was in the process from moving from one talent agency to another when she tripped over her words. Now, the second agency will not move forward with negotiations.
They also reported that some of the cast and executive producers of House of Cards pulled out of coming on the show. On Kelly's debut, she flubbed her way through an interview with the cast of the rebooted Will & Grace, with star Debra Messing saying she regretted coming on. And later, she queried Jane Fonda about plastic surgery during an appearance to promote a film. Listen, morning TV just isn't her thing.
There are too few of these prime slots on network TV morning shows to squander them on someone with, at least, questionable judgment and as far as I can tell, little to no research skills. You don't even have to research blackface to know it's wrong; heck, you could just watch C-movie Tales from the Hood 2 for that lesson.
Colleagues Al Roker and Craig Melvin weighed in. Roker called for the eventual apology and Melvin was even more succinct, calling the comments "ignorant and racist." Is that a workplace you even want to go back to anyway? That's a pretty deep hole.
When Kelly's guests interjected to counter her view, it would have been a great time for her to pivot and have a conversation. It would have been a good time to sit down, be humble. But she kept on keeping on with her stance. But "now," now, she knows that "the history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent, the wounds too deep."
One can only hope she didn't learn by doing.
Reports are that Kelly has hired an attorney. She should. Because NBC should have to pay her to go away, squandering our time and hers and theirs. Somebody's gotta pay.
Because fans of Today have been paying all along.
