NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said he regrets putting Megyn Kelly in NBC News’ coveted 9 a.m. time slot amid fallout from the anchor’s departure from the network.
“Megyn Kelly was a huge talent. She was at the wrong time of day (on NBC). In hindsight we shouldn’t have done it,” he told Variety Monday.
{mosads}NBC officially announced it was canceling “Megyn Kelly Today” in October following comments the host made about why it was now offensive to dress up in blackface for Halloween.
It was reported last week that Kelly and NBC finalized a deal for her departure from the network that will allow her to leave with the remainder of her $69 million contract.
NBC News and representatives for Kelly did not immediately reply to request for comments from The Hill.
Burke took ownership of the decision to bring Kelly to NBC from Fox News and tried to shield NBC News chief Andy Lack from any repercussions over the break.
“I went over and told [Kelly] she should come here,” Burke said.
The public split with Kelly continued a stretch of bad headlines for NBC News after the network fired anchor Matt Lauer in 2017 following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.
Burke pushed back against speculation that the controversy surrounding one of the network’s flagship shows should result in a leadership shuffle.
“I’m 100 percent behind Andy,” Burke told Variety. “When the drumbeat began of ‘You gotta fire this guy’ — a lot of that was really unfair. Matt Lauer was a grenade that we didn’t know was a grenade. I was here seven years and I thought Matt Lauer was the greatest interviewer in news.”