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<\/a>Megyn Kelly\u2019s new deal brings to a close the most anticipated television news contract negotiations since Katie Couric signed with CBS News in 2006, for $15 million a year. Credit Jesse Dittmar for The New York Times<\/p><\/div>\n
By JIM RUTENBERG<\/span> Megyn Kelly, who arrived at Fox News 12 years ago as a television news neophyte but rose to become one of its two biggest stars, has decided to leave the network to take on a broad new role at NBC News for an undisclosed salary, NBC announced Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n The NBC News chairman, Andrew Lack, wooed Ms. Kelly away from Fox News by offering her a triple role in which she will host her own daytime news and discussion program, anchor an in-depth Sunday night news show and take regular part in the network\u2019s special political programming and other big-event coverage.<\/p>\n The move will herald a seismic shift in the cable news landscape, where Ms. Kelly had become the second-most watched host \u2014 after Bill O\u2019Reilly of Fox News \u2014 and often helped define the national political debate, especially over the last year as Donald J. Trump regularly attacked her<\/a>, at times in viciously personal terms.<\/p>\n Ms. Kelly\u2019s exit will upend Fox News\u2019s vaunted prime-time lineup and inject a new dose of tumult just a few months after the departure of the network\u2019s powerful founding chairman, Roger Ailes<\/a>, who was ousted after several women made allegations that he sexually harassed them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The new deal brings to a close the most anticipated television news contract negotiations since Katie Couric signed with CBS News in 2006, for $15 million a year.<\/p>\n Fox News\u2019s parent company, 21st Century Fox, which is controlled by the family of Rupert Murdoch, had offered Ms. Kelly more than $20 million a year to stay after her current contract expires this year. Rival networks seeking to hire Ms. Kelly away, including NBC News, had made it clear that they could not match that money from Fox, the cable news leader for the last 15 years running.<\/p>\n Ms. Kelly\u2019s contract is not officially up until the summer, and it was unclear whether Fox News would release her from any contractual commitments that might delay her start at a rival.<\/p>\n People briefed on the talks, who would only speak on the condition of anonymity pending an announcement, declined to disclose what Ms. Kelly\u2019s new annual salary would be at NBC. But even a modest raise would place her among television\u2019s highest paid journalists. The Wall Street Journal recently reported<\/a> she was to collect $15 million for the final year of her contract.<\/p>\n In its announcement, NBC said the daytime program would run Monday through Friday at a time to be determined. It is unclear how NBC News would ensure that all of its affiliates would carry it, given that daytime television is often filled with syndicated programs. But people familiar with the discussions said NBC was confident that it would not be a problem.<\/p>\n The daytime program would be a mix of news, interviews and panel-like discussions covering a range of issues, not only government and politics.<\/p>\n The Sunday night program, which is yet to be named, would provide Ms. Kelly with a continued hand in hard news. And she would be in the mix on NBC News during major political coverage. The network said more details about her role would be announced in the coming months.<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Ms. Kelly, Leslee Dart, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the deal.<\/p>\n In a statement on Facebook <\/a>announcing her move to NBC, Ms. Kelly thanked Mr. Murdoch and his sons, Lachlan and James, along with \u201cthe FNC viewers, who have taught me so much about what really matters.\u201d She said her time at Fox News \u201cchanged my life,\u201d but it was time for a new challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cMegyn is an exceptional journalist and news anchor, who has had an extraordinary career,\u201d Mr. Lack said in a statement. \u201cShe\u2019s demonstrated tremendous skill and poise, and we\u2019re lucky to have her.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Kelly had hinted in interviews and in her recently released memoir, \u201cSettle for More,\u201d that the highest bid would not decide her future; she said she was seeking a role that would give her more time with her three young children while allowing her to extend her range beyond the constant political combat of cable news.<\/p>\n In recent months, some of that combat was taking place inside the Fox News headquarters, after Ms. Kelly\u2019s allegation that Mr. Ailes \u2014 a mentor and early champion of her career \u2014 had sexually harassed her. (Mr. Ailes has denied her charges and the others.)<\/p>\n Her allegation was one of several that came to light after another Fox News anchor, Gretchen Carlson, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Mr. Ailes<\/a> in July. In a subsequent investigation commissioned by 21st Century Fox, 20 or more women, including Ms. Kelly, reported inappropriate behavior by Mr. Ailes. But because of her stature at the network and her once close relationship with Mr. Ailes, Ms. Kelly\u2019s account proved instrumental in his ouster.<\/p>\n In her book, Ms. Kelly described her decision to step forward as a painful one that came in the face of a networkwide campaign to support Mr. Ailes, which she viewed as potentially intimidating to other accusers. Her decision to share her story with investigators drew apparent enmity from some rival stars, with the resentment lingering as she deliberated her next career move.<\/p>\n Most prominent among them was Mr. O\u2019Reilly, who said in an interview on CBS News<\/a> about allegations against Mr. Ailes that Ms. Kelly shared in her book, \u201cI\u2019m not interested in making my network look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Later that day, he continued the thought in a commentary on his own show in which he appeared to question Ms. Kelly\u2019s loyalty to Fox by saying, without naming her: \u201cIf somebody is paying you a wage, you owe that person or company allegiance. If you don\u2019t like what\u2019s happening in the workplace, go to human resources or leave.\u201d<\/p>\n (The new leadership of Fox News, Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, recently revamped<\/a> the human resources department; current and former Fox News staff members had said that they did not take complaints to the department under Mr. Ailes for fear of retaliation.)<\/p>\n Mr. O\u2019Reilly\u2019s contract is also up later this year. The television news and political worlds were closely watching for Ms. Kelly\u2019s decision as an indication of the network\u2019s future in its post-Ailes era. The speculation \u2014 and it was just that \u2014 went that one or the other would depart and that a decision by Ms. Kelly to renew would indicate a shift to a more nuanced ideological sensibility.<\/p>\n Over the years, Ms. Kelly, who views herself as more of a news analyst than opinion host, had developed a broader style in the more ideological confines of the Fox News prime-time slate, frequently upsetting expectations for a nighttime Fox personality \u2014 for instance, publicly taking on the Republican nominee for president with whom Mr. Ailes was friendly (upon leaving Fox, Mr. Ailes would go on to serve as an informal advise<\/a>r<\/a> to Mr. Trump).<\/p>\n Mr. Murdoch\u2019s sons, James and Lachlan, who help run 21st Century Fox, while making clear they want a modern workplace environment at Fox News, have also said the network would not shift away from what Lachlan Murdoch called its \u201cunique and important voice<\/a>.\u201d That voice continues to propel Fox News to the top of the cable news ratings in the nascent Trump era.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in the fall, Mr. Murdoch said money would be no object in keeping Ms. Kelly.<\/p>\n People familiar with Ms. Kelly\u2019s deliberations said she was entertaining several attractive possibilities, including at CNN and ABC News and in syndicated television.<\/p>\n Ms. Kelly was holding the discussions during a bruising year of campaign coverage in which she often became the story because of Mr. Trump\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n One person briefed on Ms. Kelly\u2019s deliberations said that Mr. Lack, the NBC News chairman, won over Ms. Kelly by starting the talks with a question about what she was seeking, instead of flatly offering possibilities. He then came back with a deal that was tailored to her preferences. A daytime show would give her a schedule that would allow her to see her children off to school and to have dinner with them and her husband, Douglas Brunt, a novelist.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/a><\/span>The New York Times<\/p>\n