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Thursday, January 5, 2017

Report: 9AM Weekdays Looks Like Kelly Time


Megyn Kelly’s new daytime show on NBC is expected to replace Today’s 9 a.m. hour, according to Broadcasting&Cable.

A network source said that timing on everything involving Kelly is still up in the air, including when she will join NBC News and when her new shows will debut. Speaking Tuesday evening on her Fox News Channel show, The Kelly File, Kelly said her last show would air Friday. Her contract with Fox News runs through July though, so she may not be able to officially join NBC News until that contract expires.

Besides hosting her own daytime program, Kelly also will anchor a Sunday night news magazine and jump in on breaking news and political stories.

The 9 a.m. hour of Today has been a trouble spot for NBC. It tries to be a take on the panel talk show, with Al Roker and Tamron Hall leading a discussion of pop culture and light news with multiple hosts. Last August, the hour suffered a further setback when Today brought on Billy Bush to lead the hour. Bush was then fired in October after video leaked of him and now-President-elect Donald Trump speaking lewdly about women.

The 9 a.m. hour straddles the more highly rated 7-9 a.m. block, anchored by Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, and the more fun and fluffy 10 a.m. hour hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. The new show will not fall under the Today banner but will instead be Kelly-branded, the sources said.


A daily daytime talk show also poses risks, according to The NYTimes.  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.

The Times adds:  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.

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