Six years after her departure from NBC News, Megyn Kelly is finding success once again. Kelly, who built a prominent career at Fox News from 2004 to 2017, left as one of the network’s top evening anchors. Her exit came amid the #MeToo movement and the fallout from sexual harassment allegations against Fox co-founder Roger Ailes. Kelly had publicly disclosed Ailes’s attempts to forcibly kiss her and his repeated demands for nude photos. Following her stint as a host and correspondent at NBC News, Kelly was dismissed in 2018 after making controversial remarks about blackface Halloween costumes. At that time, she reportedly received a $30 million settlement from the network.
Since then, Kelly has built her own brand on SiriusXM where “The Megyn Kelly Show” dominates satellite radio’s talk show charts. News outlet Semafor reported on the latest ratings, which show that the 53-year-old is better positioned than ever to be one of the most influential voices in conservative news. “According to audience figures highlighted by Kelly’s team for Semafor, Kelly’s show is now not only one of the most listened-to programs on SiriusXM, but it’s also one of the top ten podcasts in the country and its viewership is eclipsing that of some mainstream news outlets on YouTube,” the outlet noted.
The decision to start her own program followed an extensive conversation with Ben Shapiro, a conservative influencer who founded The Daily Wire in 2015. Kelly revealed that Shapiro persuaded her that launching her own venture was one of his best career moves. He has achieved significant financial success by optimizing his operations and staffing. “Kelly boasts that despite the fact that she only has six staffers, she has managed to get numbers that put her in the range of the accounts of legacy media outlets,” Semafor noted. “The Megyn Kelly Show’s YouTube channel, which has 2.3 million subscribers, had 116.8 million views in July — more views than the official channels for NBC News (78 million) CBS News (83 million), Sky News (87 million), the BBC News (72 million) and CNBC (17 million).”
Kelly still offers free partial programming on YouTube where she says her audience welcomes the familiar feel of seeing her on camera. “On-camera is how people are used to getting their news from me, so it likely feels familiar,” she told the outlet. She then quipped, “I am also half Italian, half Irish, so if you choose to watch the show, you will definitely glean something from the hand gestures and facial expressions that you might not always pick up on from listening alone. With the news what it is these days, sometimes an eye-roll, forehead slap, or pen-throw is absolutely required.”
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