Stephen Colbert Signs Megyn Kelly For Live Post-Super Bowl Show
Stephen Colbert has booked Megyn Kelly for a coveted slot in his post-Super Bowl 50 live broadcast of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert this Sunday, Yahoo News is reporting.
Kelly will join a handful of top-tier guests on the broadcast, including Tina Fey and her Whiskey Tango Foxtrot co-star Margot Robbie, Zoolander 2’s Will Ferrell, and Keanu co-stars (and former Colbert colleagues from Comedy Central) Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele.
Colbert’s post-Super Bowl broadcast will mark the first time that a late-night television show has aired in the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot.
One week! #SB50 https://t.co/tZ2GQdLZUv pic.twitter.com/EPKQKnJ9Ho
— Super Bowl 50 (@superbowl50) January 31, 2016
Fox News‘ Megyn Kelly has emerged as one of the unlikely stars of the 2016 presidential campaign, thanks to Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s zealous disdain for her. It all started back at the first GOP debate in August, when Kelly asked Trump some rather pointed questions about his history of using unflattering terms to characterize women, according to Huffington Post.
“You call women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs” and ‘disgusting animals.'”
At the time, Trump merely dismissed the criticism as “political correctness.” But, after the debate, things got downright nasty; Trump began what could be characterized as a smear campaign against Kelly, calling her “unprofessional” (which is actually one of the kindest things he’s said about her) and a host of other invectives. Perhaps most famously, Trump spoke to CNN‘s Don Lemon about Kelly shortly after the debate, making a rather gross reference to her menstrual cycle.
“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever.”
Kelly’s colleagues in the media — liberal and conservative alike — defended her questioning of Trump, agreeing that her questions were appropriate. Even unabashedly liberal filmmaker Michael Moore seemed sympathetic to Megyn – at least as far as Donald Trump is concerned. Appearing on The Kelly File last week, an almost-surprisingly jovial Moore sided with Megyn.
“What’s [Trump] afraid of? I’m sitting here — I don’t feel any fear.”
For her part, Kelly refused to respond directly to Trump’s insults, according to Deadline.
“You may have heard there was dustup involving Yours Truly and presidential contender Donald Trump. I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism.”
Trump, however, continues his beef with Megyn Kelly to this day. As recently as last week, the Republican front-runner called Kelly a “bimbo” on Twitter.
“@gene70: @FireFlyFury @megynkelly @realDonaldTrump And this is the bimbo that’s asking presidential questions? pic.twitter.com/oU1uUGnuWb”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2016
In fact, Trump cited Kelly’s “unprofessionalism” as one of the reasons he boycotted the most recent GOP debate, during which Kelly was a moderator. Kelly deftly referred to Trump’s absence as “the elephant not in the room,” according to USA Today.
Stephen Colbert, meanwhile, can’t get enough of Donald Trump if, for no other reason, than the bombastic candidate almost writes Colbert’s jokes for him. Back in September, before even a single episode of The Late Show had been filmed, Colbert spoke to reporters about his excitement for having a polarizing figure like Trump in the presidential race.
“I’m hoping certain people stay in the campaign until September 9. I’m not going to name any names, but I want to do jokes on Donald Trump and I have no venue. Right now I’m just dry-Trumping.”
And once The Late Show debuted, Colbert let loose with a barrage of Trump jokes he’d been saving up for months, according to Rolling Stone.
“I promise you, just like the rest of the media, I will be covering all of the presidential candidates…who are Donald Trump.”
You can catch Megyn Kelly and Stephen Colbert immediately after Super Bowl 50 on CBS around 10 p.m. Eastern time.
[Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc]
