After Megyn: ‘Today’ Ratings Climb

The departure of Megyn Kelly from NBC’s 9 a.m. “Today” timeslot marked a setback for the anchor as well as the network paying her millions of dollars to host. But the split appears to be helping the morning franchise overall, according to Variety.

Since Kelly’s exit from the third hour of “Today,” viewership in the key demographic favored by advertisers in that time period is up around 10%, according to Nielsen.

And in each of the last three weeks, overall audience for the flagship first two hours of the NBC A.M. mainstay has been larger than that for its main rival, ABC’s “Good Morning America” . NBC canceled “Megyn Kelly Today” on October 26, two days after comments she made about wearing blackface and amid talks the two sides were having about finding her a new role at NBC News. Kelly and NBCUniversal continue to negotiate terms of her departure, according to people familiar with the matter.

The question for NBC will be whether the surge will hold, or fall back to more typical levels. “GMA” usually nabs the biggest morning-news audience overall, while “Today” takes the lead in the measure that matters more, the viewers between 25 and 54 who are coveted most by advertisers in news programming.

In its last week on air, “Megyn Kelly Today” captured 675,000 viewers between 25 and 54, according to Nielsen, and approximately 2.52 million viewers overall. Last week, the third hour of “Today” snared 741,000 viewers between 25 and 54 and more than 2.63 million viewers overall, representing jumps of about 10% and 4%.