Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News and NBC personality, is achieving notable success with her post-television career, particularly on YouTube.
In July, Kelly’s SiriusXM show, “The Megyn Kelly Show,” reportedly attracted more than 30 million additional views on YouTube compared to the news channels of NBC and CBS, which include all of their programming. According to Max Tani of Semafor, Kelly’s YouTube channel has 2.3 million subscribers and garnered 116.8 million views last month. In contrast, NBC’s YouTube channel accumulated 78 million views, while CBS managed 83 million:
“On-camera is how people are used to getting their news from me, so it likely feels familiar,” Kelly said of her growth on YouTube. “I am also half Italian, half Irish, so if you choose to watch the show, you will definitely glean something from the hand gestures and facial expressions that you might not always pick up on from listening alone. With the news what it is these days, sometimes an eye-roll, forehead slap, or pen-throw is absolutely required.”
In an interview with Semafor last year, Kelly said that after she was forced out of NBC News, she met with the conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, who suggested she turn to podcasting. But she was scared that she wouldn’t be able to find an audience in digital media.
The post-cable independent route has given a second life to some other former personalities who’ve found themselves without a home on linear television. Former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan left the network to start his own publication, Zeteo, which has quickly garnered a strong subscriber base and nearly 370,000 subscribers on YouTube since launching less than six months ago. While his post-CNN tenure has been a bit bumpier, former anchor Don Lemon has proved that he can still attract big-name guests and audience attention with his interview-focused YouTube show.
Kelly departed from Fox News for NBC in 2017, despite hosting the network’s second-highest-rated program. She then launched “The Megyn Kelly Show” in September 2020, which moved to SiriusXM less than a year later.
Recently, Kelly announced her endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the upcoming election.
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