New York's Gabriel Sherman is reporting that in addition to being a ratings and financial failure, Megyn Kelly's interview with Donald Trump has resulted in her losing most of the leverage she had in her upcoming contract negotiations.
Fox executives were willing to consider 9 million viewers a success, but Kelly's supposedly mainstream appeal didn't translate to the parent network, and she only netted 4.8 million viewers. It was, as one Fox insider told Sherman, "not good for her at all."
In fact, her boss Roger Ailes was apparently so tickled by the fact that he would not have to pay her a reported $25 million to remain at Fox News that he was heard "snickering" in a Thursday meeting when the special was mentioned.
For her part,
In the days since, Kelly has been working to contain the fallout. She took aim at critics on her cable show Wednesday night by deploying an age-old Fox News tactic: claiming the backlash was a result of liberal media bias. But behind the scenes, she is said to be worried about the response. “She’s very upset with the show reaction, and in hindsight with how it was produced,” one Fox veteran told me...
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