Will Megyn Kelly Leave Or Stay?

Megyn Kelly

With Roger Ailes gone, will FNC's stable prime­time lineup of anchors remain intact? In particular, what will become of Megyn Kelly, whose contract is up for renewal next year?

Kelly's feud with Donald Trump catapulted both to the center of campaign 2016, and her ambitions stretch far beyond her nightly cable hour. Kelly's avowed role models of Charlie Rose and Diane Sawyer suggest two goals: the megamillion-dollar payday that in TV news now is only granted to those in the a.m. broadcast anchor chairs; and prestigious one-on-one interviews in primetime.

The first traditionally has favored smart, beautiful, personable blondes; the second, tenacious questioning acumen. Kelly, 45, qualifies on both fronts.

According to news analyst Charle Tyndall in an article for The Hollywood Reporter, FNC has spent so much time differentiating itself from all other mainstream networks and boasting that it has a radically different journalistic agenda and ideology ("fair and balanced") that it is not clear Kelly's star power (she reportedly already makes $10 million a year) would translate seamlessly.

Tyndall writes:

"She must have known her claim to internal investigators would eventually be made public, so she was delivering the coup de grace that would topple Ailes and transform the management structure at FNC. 

Her decision makes sense if she already had locked in an opportunity to leave and saw no downside to burning bridges. Equally, it makes sense as an internal power grab; with Ailes supplanted, she increases her chances of leapfrogging his acolytes Sean Hannity and, in particular, archrival Bill O'Reilly, to become the network's true star. 

As much as Kelly might aspire to be the next Rose or Sawyer, there is the sobering counterexample of Katie Couric, who demonstrates that a top star in one format can have little leverage in another. Does Kelly really want to end up as a Yahoo castoff? 

"So, with Ailes gone, is Kelly likely to follow him out the door? Unlikely. I bet she stays at Fox News. As its queen bee."