Lachlan Murdoch says Megyn Kelly is not returning to Fox News
Apparently you can’t go home again at Fox News Channel.
Fox co-Chairman Lachlan Murdoch reiterated the network’s position Thursday that Megyn Kelly, who is currently in the midst of exiting NBC, will not be back at the cable channel where she made her mark.
“I’m a big fan of Megyn’s. We didn’t want her to leave Fox,” Murdoch said during the New York Times DealBook conference in New York. “I’m very happy with our current lineup on Fox News and we won’t be making any changes there.”
Fox News will be a central piece of the new Fox company that will be spun off from 21st Century Fox after the sale of the company’s production studio and entertainment cable network assets to Walt Disney Co.
Kelly was at Fox News for 12 years and became a breakout star during the 2016 presidential campaign. She was offered an annual salary of $25 million to stay at the end of 2016.
But Kelly chose to jump to NBC for a three-year deal worth a reported $69 million. She was given a prime-time newsmagazine program and her own eponymously named hour of the network’s morning franchise “Today.”
The prime-time show was canceled last summer after a short run and “Megyn Kelly Today” ended last Friday, three days after the host’s on-air comments defending the use of blackface in a discussion about Halloween costumes.
Attorneys representing Kelly and NBC are currently in talks about the terms of her exit from the network.
The two sides have been in protracted talks over how much of Kelly’s contract will be paid out and the terms of any nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreements.
Twitter: @SteveBattaglio
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