NBC poached Megyn Kelly from Fox with a three-year contract for $69 million, but her ratings are not consistent with what is expected from that level of network investment.
"Megyn Kelly Today" premiered in September 2017 but has yet to find its audience for its 9 a.m. weekday slot, reports BusinessInsider.
During Kelly's last year at Fox News, "The Kelly File" averaged 2.7 million viewers despite being on a cable network. Kelly was in prime time and now airs in mornings, but her viewership dropped as she made the transfer from cable to network television.
In the same time slot over at ABC, "Live With Kelly and Ryan" has seen a spike in ratings, partially attributed to Megyn Kelly's performance and partially attributed to Ryan Seacrest being named as Kelly Ripa's permanent co-host.
Nielsen shows that "Live" has expanded its lead over "Today" since Megyn Kelly joined NBC. Ripa and Seacrest now average 747,000 more viewers than Kelly. Forbes reported that Ripa made about $18 million last year and will make approximately $20 million from her "Live" salary in 2018.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the audience for "Megyn Kelly Today" is 18% smaller than the audience for NBC's previous hosts in her spot, Tamron Hall and Al Roker, and that Hall and Roker had a combined salary of less than half of what Kelly is now making when they had the 9 a.m. spot last year. Hall has since left NBC.
Kelly's ratings had a temporary improvement in February, which was attributed to NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics.
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