Megyn Kelly: Another viewpoint…
A veteran observer of the cable news industry emailed in the following regarding the Megyn Kelly situation at FNC…
You know the media love to promote the Megyn Kelly Rising Star storyline, and it’s true she has been featured quite a bit. But it’s always in a manner consistent with a role as reporter rather than opinionator. And opinionators are what sell in primetime.
Also doesn’t anyone look at the ratings? She comes in below Fox & Friends! Only Happening Now (which has been lagging for years) and Studio B are lower in dayside. She loses viewers from Hemmer’s block. I just think it’s odd how much this meme continues to bubble around when she’s not exactly setting the Nielsens on fire. Though I understand it to a certain extent as she is so good on camera, and smart on her feet (lawyers turned journalists tend to have that ability)…but this in the role of a reporter, not as a primetime commentator/opinion host.
I would counter argue a couple of things raised here. I can’t say that Kelly ‘loses viewers’ from Hemmer’s block since her block doesn’t follow Hemmer’s block. As for the ‘opionators are what sell in primetime’ argument…They certainly do sell at 8pm and at 9pm but Greta Van Susteren has done just dandy at 10pm and I wouldn’t consider her cut from the same opinionator stone as Hannity and O’Reilly. I think a Kelly-Van Susteren swap out, if the network ever decided to go that route, wouldn’t hurt FNC’s primetime any.
November 12, 2012 at 11:40 am
Yeah, Van Susteren has the biggest bulls-eye, for obvious reasons. Aside from that, she may not be an “opinionator”, but it’s fairly obvious where her show is coming from. The puffball interviews with Palin, the unrebutted Moments of Rush, the standard, mostly right-wing guests. If anything, Kelly would add more “straight news” to their usual primetime fare, which would be a welcome change.
November 12, 2012 at 1:09 pm
You’re right, Greta’s hour probably is a better fit since Megyn wouldn’t need to be so ideological. If Fox wanted to be more newsy in the evening that would be a good switch to make since it appears that Greta’s rating have been sinking a bit. MSNBC is making ratings progress against Greta with Lawrence. That might even make CNN nervous since that is Andy’s rerun hour. Baffles me that CNN plays a rerun in primetime hours – for pete’s sake put some kind of live news 10pm block. Anyway, I digress.
November 12, 2012 at 1:13 pm
If Megyn did a newshour in Greta’s slot, I’d be inclined to DVR and watch after Last Word. As it stands now there is nothing in Fox primetime I can sit through.
November 12, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Ironically, what I think hurts Greta’s show is that she’s playing defense. She’s afraid of being replaced by someone younger and prettier, so she does a Fox-friendly lineup. That causes her to pander to ‘personalities’ like Palin, Trump and Rush. She was a smart legal person on CNN. She got a facelift, switched to Fox, and dumbed-down. Time to move on.
November 12, 2012 at 1:49 pm
I do’t think that entirely the case. The ratings are still highest when she’s on even when she has people like Shannon Bream or Martha Maccallum subbing in for her. Also, she really likes Palin and the other personalities so it makes sense she would give them softer interviews. I don’t think her job is in any danger for a while to be honest.
November 12, 2012 at 3:07 pm
the ratings are what they are. and at the mid-day hours, the ratings are never going to be as high as fox and friends or primetime. that’s just common sense.
kelly also has 2 small kids. you think she’s going to do a live show every day at 10pm? doubtful.
she’d be GREAT, but i don’t think it’s going to happen. she’s clearly one of the smarter people on air. she saved them on election night and with the supreme court obamacare incident. but the roster/lineup is what it is.
November 12, 2012 at 7:49 pm
WELL SAID ^
November 13, 2012 at 9:18 am
I think flip-flopping Greta and Kelly could work. Greta’s program has become something of a studio audience show… without the audience. I could see her hosting something like that in the afternoon, getting questions from people in the stands, etc, and doing well at that time.
November 14, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Megyn’s ratings are good for the timeslot she’s on when mostly people are out to lunch