Report: Can Fox News Keep Megyn Kelly?

Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly is the most prized anchor in cable news at the moment.

Vanity Fair is reporting when word circulated that Kelly has recently spoken with the Murdochs, “everyone got nervous all over again,” according to one staffer, suggesting that she might be preparing to leave. It turns out that Kelly has spoken multiple times with all of the Murdochs, and has spent the most time with Lachlan, who has been in close touch with her throughout the whole Ailes imbroglio, according to a person familiar with the matter. “Lachlan was the one who talked to her throughout this entire ordeal,” this person added. But both brothers are aligned in their desire to keep the broadcaster, this person added. “James loves Megyn. He believes she’s a big part of the future of this channel.”

Besides a ratings hit, losing Kelly would be devastating for the optics of Fox News. “On top of all their troubles they have, if they lose their ‘It girl,’ they’ll be in even worse shape,” one rival television executive told Sarah Ellison at VF. The Ailes scandal has given her additional leverage.

Bill O'Reilly

Some rival television executives engage in optimistic thinking that one additional wrinkle to keeping Kelly at Fox News is O’Reilly himself. The two of them anchor the channel’s two highest-rated shows, but they rarely interact. O’Reilly tapes his show most days between four P.M. and six P.M. Kelly is on live nightly at nine P.M.

O’Reilly, who also has one year to go on his contract, was one of Trump’s biggest defenders throughout his public battle with Kelly. Rupert Murdoch knows and likes O’Reilly. The brothers, however, reportedly are not fans. The rival news executive floated the possibility that if O’Reilly stays, Kelly is likely to go. She is soon to be a free agent, and like a star player, may decide that whatever the money, she wants to live in a different universe.

One former Fox executive broached that to keep both Kelly and O’Reilly under the same roof, “you’d have to have the world’s greatest interventional therapist to come and sit down with them both.”