Megyn Kelly Is Already Plotting Her Return to TV

After a lengthy back and forth, Megyn Kelly is close to finalizing her exit from NBC, Page Six reported Tuesday. The disgraced Megyn Kelly Today host is expected to walk away with $30 million, the full amount owed in the remainder of her $69 million contract. Kelly will certainly need to leave New York and lick her wounds, but don’t expect her to stay away from the spotlight for too long: a source close to the situation told Page Six that Kelly could return to the TV as soon as 2020. Knowing Kelly, that may not be soon enough.

Sources explained that the negotiations between Kelly’s reps and NBC have taken “longer than expected” but should wrap up soon. “Everyone wants this to be over — both Megyn and NBC — and Comcast has the money to pay off Megyn,” said someone close to the discussion. “We thought this would be a done deal a few weeks ago.” But Kelly isn’t too worried about the complicated “back and forth,” as she’s already plotting her next move. “This is far from the end of her TV career — in the Trump era, there are few broadcasters like her,” a source told Page Six. “Megyn would likely take a short break from TV and return to cable news ahead of the 2020 election.” Considering that election coverage more or less begins in January 2020 (and even earlier if you care about party debates, forums, and candidacy announcements), Kelly could be back on our screens in just one year.

But is one year enough time to wash the stink off after a massive blackface controversy? The week that Kelly defended blackface, employees at rival networks told DailyMail that the former NBC host is “toxic and her personal brand is finished.” One source described Kelly’s Today hour as “a $100 million shit show at 9 am every morning,” while another defined her “limited tenure” as “an embarrassing joke.” Clearly, any network that hires Kelly — either for election coverage or daytime fluff, as NBC did — will have some serious obstacles to overcome.