| | | | Megyn Kelly's last day on Fox News will be this Friday. She is joining NBC News in a bold, risky move, and the media world is abuzz about it. Ever since 12:30 p.m. ET Dylan Byers and I have been on the phone with sources, gathering intel, and this special edition of the newsletter contains 1) everything we know 2) everything we WANT to know.
First, a flashback to April 2016. Charlie Rose asked Kelly: "What's the perfect television show for Megyn Kelly to do?" Kelly answered: "How about if we merge a little Charlie Rose, a little Oprah, and a little me all together? And we serve that up as an hour? Wouldn't you watch that?"
Would you? We're about to find out.
Today Kelly is feeling fortunate. She won the "dream job" she described. A year's worth of speculation about her future has been put to rest. But now there's an enormous amount of speculation about whether she'll succeed. There's a ton of skepticism, to be honest. Click here to read Dylan's story all about that... | | -- Daytime news program on NBC (NOT a "talk show" -- Kelly intentionally doesn't want it to be a talk show like "Katie")
-- Prime time newsmagazine on Sundays
-- Various roles in political and special events coverage (You'll see me "on the big nights," for "politics and such," she says) | | | In the halls of the "Today" show... | | | There's lots of chatter about Kelly possibly "taking over" the 9 a.m. hour... Going head to head with Kelly Ripa... Which leads us to a list of unanswered questions we have... | | | Email us if you have answers to these Q's | | -- What daytime hour will Kelly get, and what will the show really be? If not 9 a.m., will it be 10 a.m.? 1 p.m.? (NBC says the time slot is TBD)
-- Via Dylan's story: If it is a new kind of show for daytime, especially a newsier kind, is there a format that could work, and a demographic that will want to watch it?
-- How much money will she make per year?
-- How long-term is her long-term contract? Through the 2020 election?
-- When were NBC's stars told about her hiring? How are they feeling?
-- Will she ever appear on MSNBC? Ever? (Sounds like no.)
-- How long will Fox make her sit on the bench? Her contract expires in July. Will Fox let her appear on NBC before then? (NBC says all of the timing is TBD, too)
-- How will NBC deal with the "Sunday Night Football" scheduling problem?
-- What are the ripple effects at Fox? Who gets promoted? | | | Sherman says Fox offered Kelly $25 million to stay | | Gabriel Sherman writes: "One Fox insider told me Murdoch balked when Kelly asked for $25 million late in the talks. (A person close to Kelly disputed this, saying that said Kelly never asked for a specific dollar amount but that Fox had offered $25 million.)"
Fox offered $25 million? Really? Yes, really, a well-placed source told me after Sherman's story hit... | | Kelly wanted out of Fox. She wanted out of the Bill O'Reilly/Sean Hannity prime time sandwich. Most of all, she wanted to be home before 11 p.m. or midnight. When talking with friends about this fork in the road, she sometimes pulled up a picture on her phone of her three children. She said the decision was really about them... And at NBC, she'll have a more flexible and more appealing schedule. "Money wasn't the primary factor," her spokeswoman said. Conventional wisdom is that NBC paid less than Fox offered.
Fox would have bent over backwards to keep Kelly. So this was ultimately a decision about wanting -- needing? -- a new network home... | | | Megyn's move is on page one on Wednesday. Quoting Jim Rutenberg's story: "In a brief interview," NBC News boss Andy Lack "said he would be closely involved in the creation of Ms. Kelly's daytime show... as well as the one she will anchor on Sunday nights. That show will be in the vein of CBS's '60 Minutes,' where Mr. Lack worked early in his career. 'The thing about this that is challenging but exciting as hell is that we love making new shows,' he said. 'You don't get that opportunity that often any more, and you don't get the opportunity to do that with a talent like Megyn.'" | | -- Former colleague: "If Hillary had won, would she have left Fox?"
-- Trump watcher: "This is a good thing for Trump… Fox's biggest Trump critic is gone…"
-- A Kelly fan inside Fox: "Her book title was 'Settle for More.' She's settling for less money and maybe less impact. But more freedom and more time with family..."
-- NBC News insider: "There was lots of excitement. The newsrooms were buzzing as soon as the news hit…"
-- Another NBCer: "Andy Lack now has a big shiny object to invest his attention in…"
-- Talent agent: "How is NBC News going to afford her?"
-- Rival TV exec who doubts NBC can deliver: "She's been sold a bill of goods."
-- WSJ's Joe Flint on Twitter: "Be wary the agency promising to make you an even bigger star. Ask Josh Elliott, Sam Champion and Katie Couric how it worked out..."
-- Another rival TV exec: "Daytime TV is a graveyard…"
-- Daytime TV veteran: "The only thing working in daytime right now is diversity. Wendy Williams. 'The Real.' Steve Harvey…"
-- Former colleague: "She was a corporate lawyer, and she conquered cable news, so I'm not betting against her…"
-- Friend of Kelly's: "She really painfully deliberated about this over the holidays…"
-- Murdoch aide: "Rupert was not surprised…"
-- Network PR exec: "Smart call by Kelly and Leslee Dart, having Kelly write a letter on social media instead of a canned statement..."
-- Executive producer: "Does anybody remember Rock Center?" (If you don't, it was Brian Williams' stab at a Sunday night news program...)
-- NYT's John Koblin and Michael Grynbaum in Wednesday's paper: "One winner in the sweepstakes for Ms. Kelly could be CNN, even though it did not succeed in recruiting her..." | | | A big risk for both sides | | | Variety's Brian Steinberg said it really well: "NBCUniversal will spend millions of dollars each year for the next few in the hopes that Megyn Kelly can succeed in areas in which she's never been tested: daytime talk and Sunday newsmagazines." | | That's partly why some observers are baffled. As an anonymous network exec told Dylan: "I'm jealous of NBC for hiring her because she's a rock star, but the degree of difficulty here is extremely high. If she survives the trial by fire of daytime and Sunday nights, the bet is unbelievable. If not, she could end up fading into obscurity."
Dylan writes: "Previous TV news talents who have made the jump to daytime include Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper and Meredith Vieira." All three of their shows were canceled within three years. Read much more here... | | | Most TV viewers don't care about this move one bit, but the viewers who do care are mostly rooting for her. The haters scream very loudly, but the fans outnumber them. Here's what I mean -- a random tweet I just spotted -- "So cool to see a woman like @megynkelly taking a risk...Starting from scratch. #inspired" | | | For Kelly, a risk worth taking | | | She called Lachlan Murdoch on Tuesday morning and said she had made up her mind. They had a "lovely conversation," a source said... | | | I love this next headline because these two words have never been paired together before... | | | Dylan Byers emails: The Murdochs offered Megyn everything. They backed her during the Roger Ailes investigation, they talked about her as the future of the network, and they were willing to cough up at least $20 million (and perhaps $25 million!) to make her stay... Instead, she jumped to NBC, and now Fox News is left with far more Q's than A's about its identity and its lineup. | | | The anti-Ailes? Rupert took the high road | | | Speaking of Roger... How do you think he would have handled this defection? I'm guessing he would have blocked her from anchoring this week. Instead, Rupert Murdoch was gracious, issuing a statement that thanked Kelly and said, "We hope she enjoys tremendous success in her career and wish her and her family all the best." Let's see if this relatively friendly tone continues... | | | Sarah Ellison's must read for VF: "After the surprising election of Donald J. Trump, Kelly's calculus seemed to change..." Joe Concha: "Conservative media figures are taking to Twitter to celebrate Megyn Kelly's pending move..." Callum Borchers: "A new era at Fox News..." | | | Who wins Fox's 9 p.m. hour? | | Bill O'Reilly is the best lead-in on cable news, delivering Fox's 9 p.m. hour 2 to 3 million viewers a night. Who's going to get it? Well four women have filled in for Kelly: Martha MacCallum, Sandra Smith, Trish Regan and Shannon Bream. Over the holidays Smith filled in for the better part of two weeks and held the ratings pretty well.
If the Murdochs opt for a more opinionated pro-Trump host, there's Kim Guilfoyle... If they're comfortable with an all-white-male prime time lineup, move Tucker Carlson to 9 p.m.... Or move Sean Hannity back to 9 and surprise everyone with a new 10 p.m. show... | | | Inside NBC: "She chose us" | | | Outside NBC, skepticism ruled the day. CNN and ABC are two of the other networks that made a play for Kelly. Inside NBC, one of my most reliable sources inside the network said Tuesday night, "I think people are excited to see that NBC News went out and she chose us, and that NBC News invested in her, and in turn, in the future of NBC News, especially as we move into the Trump Era." Especially as we move into the Trump Era... | | "Television talent raids—like the one NBC News chairman Andrew Lack has just pulled off—are almost never a simple matter of improving your own roster. As the history of broadcasting shows us, a single major defection by a popular anchor rarely improves that acquiring network's ratings or public appeal. The primary aim of such larceny: Weaken your TV opponent's line-up by making off with one of their visible stars. Anything else accomplished is just gravy."
--Jack Shafer in a piece titled "Megyn Kelly's big mistake..." | | | When I noticed Jim Rutenberg's column missing from Monday's NYT, I wondered what he was up to. Still surfing out east? Nope, he was beating us all to this news... Rutenberg's story went up at lunchtime, calling this a "seismic shift in the cable news landscape..." Then he rewrote the piece for Wednesday's page one... | | | Updates about two other former Fox Newsers... | | | Greta Van Susteren's new MSNBC show is set to be announced later this week... On Tuesday evening, when a twitterer asked her about going back to Fox, she said no, "I want a new adventure..." | | | Gretchen Carlson's new column | | | Gretchen Carlson filled in on the 9am hour of "Today" on Tuesday, hours before the Kelly news broke. She didn't announce a return to TV, but she said she'll be writing a column for Time Inc's Motto web site starting later this month... | | | New EIC of Wired: Nicholas Thompson | | Nicholas Thompson is returning to Wired -- this time as the editor in chief. Thompson, who's been at The New Yorker since 2010, will be replacing Scott Dadich, Conde Nast announced on Tuesday. Dadich will be launching "a strategy, design and content firm" called Godfrey Dadich Partners.
Frank Pallotta emails: Thompson told me over the phone that he's ready to return to the magazine "to make sure science keeps going forward, that we can all agree on facts, and make sure all that information makes our lives richer..." | | -- "House Speaker Paul Ryan will sit down with CNN's Jake Tapper for a prime-time town hall just one week before Trump's inauguration." Airing January 12 at 9 p.m... (CNN)
-- Big win for BuzzFeed News, hiring "FOIA terrorist" Jason Leopold away from Vice... (Poynter)
-- The Guardian's Ruth Spencer is moving to NYMag… She'll be senior editor at The Cut… (Twitter)
-- Meg James' latest must-read: "Univision's latest drama is behind the scenes: It's losing young Latino viewers to the competition..." (LATimes)
-- Erik Wemple calls this "a rather unsuccessful and outdated mode of info-suppression:" A New York man who bought up stacks of the local paper because it had his DWI arrest mugshot in it... (WashPost) | | | It's official: Trump presser on January 11 | | | President-elect Donald Trump made it official on Tuesday evening: He will hold a news conference in New York next week. "I will be having a general news conference on JANUARY ELEVENTH in N.Y.C. Thank you," Trump tweeted, one day after Kellyanne Conway told Anderson Cooper about the plan. Of course, he has already postponed once... | | Frank Pallotta emails: Arnold Schwarzenegger is no Donald Trump… at least not in terms of viewership. The premiere of NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," Schwarzenegger's first as host, brought in an average of 4.9 million viewers on Monday night. That was well below the 6.5 million that watched the premiere of the last season of the show hosted by now-President-elect Trump in 2015. It also trailed the 6.6 million who tuned into last night's premiere of "The Bachelor." I wonder if even Trump watched?
-- Variety's Ramin Setoodeh tweets: "Fewer people tuned in to the Arnold Schwarzenegger 'Apprentice' (4.9 million) than the failed 2005 Martha Stewart version (7.1 million)…"
-- Mike Hale writes: "After Monday's numbingly boring opener, someone needs to take 'The New Celebrity Apprentice' into the boardroom, quick." | | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. See you tomorrow! | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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