Megyn Kelly

In 2003, Kelly moved to Washington, D.C., where she was hired by the ABC affiliate WJLA-TV as a general assignment reporter.[8] She covered national and local events, including live coverage of the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts; the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist; and the 2004 presidential election.[14] CNN president Jonathan Klein later said he regretted not hiring Kelly as a reporter at the beginning of her career, as she was "the one talent you'd want to have from somewhere else".[15]

In 2004, Kelly applied for a job at Fox News.[14] She contributed legal segments for Special Report with Brit Hume and hosted her own legal segment, Kelly's Court, during Weekend Live. She appeared on a weekly segment on The O'Reilly Factor and occasionally filled in for Greta Van Susteren on On the Record, where most of her reporting focused on legal and political matters. She occasionally contributed as an anchor, but more often as a substitute anchor on weekends.[16] On February 1, 2010, Kelly began hosting her own two-hour afternoon show, America Live, which replaced The Live Desk.[17][18] She was a guest panelist on Fox News' late-night satire program Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. In 2010, viewership for America Live increased by 20%, averaging 1,293,000 viewers, and increased by 4% in the 25–54 age demographic, averaging 268,000 viewers.[19] In December 2010, Kelly hosted a New Year's Eve special with Bill Hemmer.[20]

Kelly reporting during Fox's 2012 Republican National Convention coverage

Kelly received media attention for her coverage of the results of the 2012 United States presidential election. On November 6, 2012 (the night of the election), Fox News' decision desk projected that Obama would win a second term after part of the results had been released. In response to Karl Rove's opposition to this projection, Kelly walked backstage to the decision desk on camera and spoke with them, and also asked Rove, "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better? Or is this real?"[21][22][23][24]

Kelly left America Live in July 2013, and took maternity leave. On October 7, 2013, she began hosting a new nightly program, The Kelly File.[25][26] The Kelly File was occasionally the channel's ratings leader, topping The O'Reilly Factor.[27][28]

In December 2013, Kelly commented on a Slate on The Kelly File: "For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa," adding, "But Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it." Kelly also said that Jesus was a white man later in the segment.[29] Soon after, Jon Stewart,[30] Stephen Colbert,[31] Rachel Maddow,[32] Josh Barro,[33] and others satirized her remarks.[34] Two days later, she said on the air that her original comments were "tongue-in-cheek",[35][36][37][38][39] and that the skin color of Jesus is "far from settled".[40]

In June 2015, Kelly interviewed Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting regarding their son Josh Duggar's alleged molestation of five girls in 2002. She later interviewed two of their daughters, Jill and Jessa. This show's Nielsen national estimates ratings of 3.09 million viewers, above its average 2.11 million, ranked with the 3.2 million for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shootdown coverage and 7.3 million for the Ferguson riots coverage.[41]

In the Republican Party presidential debate on August 6, 2015, Kelly asked then-presidential candidate Donald Trump whether a man of his temperament ought to be elected president, noting that he has called various women insulting names in the past.[42] Kelly's moderating generated a range of media and political reactions and her professionalism was criticized by Trump.[43][44][45][46] Kelly responded to Trump's criticism by saying she would not "apologize for doing good journalism".[47] Trump declined to attend the Iowa January 28 debate that she moderated.[48] After the debate and off-camera, Ted Cruz said that Kelly had referred to Trump off-camera as "Voldemort", though Fox News denied it.[49] Bill Maher complimented Kelly as being "so much better" than the candidates who attended the January 28 debate and argued that she was a more viable candidate for the Republican nomination.[50] In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, Kelly reflected that she was disappointed with the lack of support she received from coworker Bill O'Reilly and CNN, the latter airing a Trump event the same time as the debate.[51][52] In April, at her request,[53] Kelly met with Trump at Trump Tower, having "a chance to clear the air".[54] The following month, after interviewing Trump and being met with mixed reception,[55] she expressed interest in doing another one with him.[56] In June, she criticized Trump for his claims against Gonzalo P. Curiel's impartiality.[57] In October, a contentious discussion between Kelly and Newt Gingrich on The Kelly File regarding Trump's sexual comments in a 2005 audio recording gained widespread social media reaction.[58]

In March 2016, it was announced that Kelly would host a one-hour prime time special on the Fox network, wherein she would interview celebrities from the worlds of "politics, entertainment, and other areas of human interest".[59] The special aired in May 2016, which is a sweeps month.[60] It acquired 4.8 million viewers, but came in third place in ratings.[61][62] Gabriel Sherman wrote of the stakes for Kelly as "high", elaborating that with Kelly being in the final year of her contract with Fox and having confirmed her ambitions, "The special was essentially a public interview for her next job."[63] In July 2016, amid allegations of sexual harassment on the part of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, Kelly was reported to have confirmed that she herself was also subjected to his harassment.[64][65] Two days after the report, Ailes resigned from Fox News and his lawyer, Susan Estrich, publicly denied the charge.[66] During her coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention, her attire received criticism.[67] In a defense of Kelly, Jenavieve Hatch of The Huffington Post commented, "If you're a woman on national television reporting on a political event from hot, humid Cleveland, wearing a weather-appropriate outfit makes you the target of an endless stream of sexist commentary."[68] In September, it was reported that Kelly would be collaborating with Michael De Luca to produce Embeds, a scripted comedy about reporters covering politics, to be aired on a streaming service.[69][70] Kelly appeared on the cover of the February 2016 issue of Vanity Fair.[71] In 2016, she was an honoree for Variety's Power of Women for her addressing child abuse.[72]

Kelly with Russian president Vladimir Putin, June 2017

Kelly with Putin, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and Austrian chancellor Christian Kern

In late 2016, Kelly was alleged to be actively considering other news networks aside from Fox News, since her contract was a few months from expiring.[73][74] In January 2017, The New York Times reported that she would leave Fox News for a "triple role" at NBC News, which would include a daytime talk show, a Sunday-night newsmagazine, and becoming a correspondent for major news events and political coverage.[75][76] She departed Fox News on January 6, 2017, after the last episode of The Kelly File was aired.[77][78] In January 2017, People quoted an unspecified source that Kelly remained under a non-compete clause with Fox until July 2017 which would prevent her from working for a competitor until the clause expires or is canceled.[79]

On June 2, 2017, Kelly interviewed Russian president Vladimir Putin, first in a panel discussion she moderated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and later in a one-on-one interview for the premiere episode of NBC's Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, which aired June 4, 2017.[80][81][82] Kelly's daytime talk show, Megyn Kelly Today, premiered in September 2017.[83][84][85][86]

Kelly was being paid reportedly between $15 million and $20 million a year at NBC.[87] After an initial run of eight episodes in the summer of 2017, NBC decided to bring her newsmagazine show Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly back for summer 2018 after a hiatus for football and the Winter Olympics, but only periodically. However, this return never materialized.[88][89] Instead, Kelly continued to report stories for Dateline NBC during the summer of 2018, continuing her work for the show which she joined in 2017.[90]

On October 23, 2018, Kelly was criticized for on-air remarks she made on Megyn Kelly Today related to the appropriateness of blackface as part of Halloween costumes. She recollected that "when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character", and defended Luann de Lesseps's use of skin darkening spray to portray Diana Ross.[91] Later that day, Kelly issued an internal email apologizing for the remarks.[92] On October 26, 2018, NBC canceled Megyn Kelly Today.[93] It had been reported that Kelly was considering ending the program to focus on her role as a correspondent.[94] Her contract was terminated January 11, 2019, with Kelly due the entire amount from the contract. She was reportedly not subject to any non-compete clause under her NBC contract.[95][96][97]

Kelly announced the launch of Devil May Care Media, her media production company, on September 10, 2020, with a podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show.[98] Its first episode premiered on September 28.[99]