“Megyn Kelly Today is not returning,” a representative of NBC News said in a statement Friday. “Next week, the 9am will be hosted by other Today co-anchors.”
The announcement came after NBC News reported that Kelly had begun negotiations with the network about potentially leaving in after her widely condemned comments about blackface.
The recent controversy stems from Tuesday’s show, when Kelly, 47, questioned whether it’s racist to wear blackface.
Kelly returned to the air Wednesday morning to apologise for her remarks, but the network aired recorded episodes Thursday and Friday.
Meanwhile, the Today show covered the latest Kelly news Friday, and a tweet for the programme said the host was in talks with the network “about her imminent departure,” citing a source.
Kelly joined NBC last year following a lengthy tenure at Fox and is widely reported to have received a $69 million contract over three years.
The host received tremendous criticism following her comments about blackface, which she made during a segment that featured a discussion panel.
“What is racist?” Kelly asked during the episode. “Because you get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface or a black person who puts on whiteface. When I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”
She apologised to her colleagues in an e-mail later that day, and then told viewers Wednesday that she was wrong.
“One of the great parts of sitting in this chair each day is getting to discuss different points of view,” Kelly said. “Sometimes I talk and sometimes I listen and yesterday, I learned. I learned that given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country it is not OK for that to be part of any costume.”
The host, whose programme Megyn Kelly Today was the third hour of NBC’s Today show coverage, replaced popular Today hosts Tamron Hall and Al Roker in that 9am time slot when she started at the network last year. Her morning show began in September 2017. – New York Daily News/TNS
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