NBC’s huge bet on Megyn Kelly has gone bust.
Her daytime show, “Megyn Kelly Today,” has been dealing with poor ratings, but the final straw came when she made remarks defending blackface during a segment earlier this week. According to the Daily Mail, Kelly is now out at the network.
This is following the hefty $69 million salary (over three years) to lure Kelly from Fox News.
Last August, Variety compiled the biggest estimated annual salaries of reality, news, and talk show hosts. There were newbies to the game like Mike Meyers and Jamie Foxx, and big hitters like Ryan Seacrest, Ellen DeGeneres, and Judith Sheindlin (you know her better as Judge Judy).
Here were some of the top paid hosts, as estimated by Variety last summer:
Note: Some of these figures below include fees for producing and back-end compensation.
Mike Myers (“The Gong Show”) - $3 million
Jamie Foxx (“Beat Shazam”) - $ 3 million
Alec Baldwin (“Match Game”) - $3 million
Ryan Seacrest (“American Idol”) - $12 million
Conan O’Brien (“Conan”) - $12 million
David Letterman (Untitled Netflix Interview Show) - $12 million
Anderson Cooper (CNN) - $12 million
George Stephanopoulos (ABC News) - $15 million
Ryan Seacrest (“Live with Kelly & Ryan”) - $15 million
Pat Sajak (“Wheel of Fortune”) - $15 million
Jimmy Kimmel (“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) - $15 million
Stephen Colbert (“The Late Show”) - $15 million
Jimmy Fallon (“The Tonight Show”) - $16 million
Robin Roberts (“Good Morning America”) - $18 million
Kelly Ripa (“Live with Kelly & Ryan”) - $22 million
Katy Perry (“American Idol”) - $25 million
Judith Sheindlin (“Judge Judy”) - $47 million
Ellen DeGeneres (“The Ellen DeGeneres Show”) - $50 million
