Megyn Kelly: Why Does Everyone Hate Her?


One year ago, Megyn Kelly was the hottest rising star of cable television. When Kelly quit Fox News and announced she was going to NBC, some thought her star would rise even higher. But with the failure of her news magazine show this summer and the vitriol aimed at her show Megyn Kelly Today, Kelly’s star is at its lowest low.

In one of the nicer articles written about Megyn Kelly recently, the New York Times reports her lower-than-expected ratings.

“Megyn Kelly, the new host of the 9 a.m. hour of NBC’s ‘Today’ show, is off to a soft start in the ratings,” says columnist John Koblin, adding that Kelly drew an average of 2.5 million viewers a day last week.

Kelly’s ratings on NBC are similar to what her Fox News ratings were. However, several million more viewers have access to NBC than they do Fox News. Some believe the ratings are embarrassing for Kelly, especially when they are for the first week, which is usually the highest for a new host.

Vanity Fair says Kelly’s ride into morning television has been a “slow-motion” collision. Columnist Emily Jane Fox quotes an NBC insider calling Kelly’s show an “implosion.” The insider says that NBC didn’t expect her arrival on network television to be seamless, but nobody expected things to sting this badly.

Megyn Kelly was once considered a superstar. Now, people are debating on how long she’ll last. [Image by Andrew Toth/Getty Images]

Kate Aurthur from Buzzfeed not only rips on Megyn Kelly’s vocal inflections (the Valley Girl, the Whisper, the Baby, and the Purposely Deep), but also suggests that more people are hate-watching Megyn Kelly Today than actually watching it to be informed.

Then, there’s Twitter.

Megyn Kelly didn’t get things off on the right foot last week when she asked Jane Fonda about her plastic surgery. Kelly told Fonda what a great example she has been for aging gracefully. Then, she dug further.

“You admit you’ve had work done, which I think is to your credit. But you look amazing…I read you said you felt not proud to admit you had work done. Why not?”

Let’s just say that Jane Fonda wasn’t happy with the question.

Many viewers considered the question misogynistic, especially coming from another woman. After all, they note that Kelly didn’t ask the other guest Robert Redford about his plastic surgery.

Then, there’s the interview with the cast of Will & Grace. According to Entertainment Weekly Kelly invited a superfan of the comedy to meet his television idols.

“Is it true that you became a lawyer — and you became gay because of Will?” Kelly jokingly asked the fan.

She then gave the fan tickets to the Los Angeles taping of Will & Grace before telling him that the “gay thing is going to work out great.” Some thought Kelly was being awkward, while others thought she was being downright homophobic.

Some defended Kelly and compared her to a mom trying too hard to “relate” to her gay son but making it way worse instead.

The few that are defending Megyn Kelly say that all the vitriol aimed at the former Fox News star is all politically motivated — liberals dislike her because she worked at Fox News, and conservatives dislike her because they think she “betrayed” her Fox viewers.

What do you think of Megyn Kelly? Do you think anybody with a new show deserves to be treated like Kelly is? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

[Featured Image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]

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