Megyn Kelly Launches Independent Media Company, Will Start Podcast
Megyn Kelly isn’t on a mainstream news outlet at present, but that isn’t going to keep her from broadcasting.
The former NBC News and Fox News Channel anchor confirmed Thursday what many media-industry observers have long suspected: She’s going the independent route.
Kelly will launch Devil May Care Media, a production company that will back podcasts and other shows built around the latest news, current events, legal and cultural issues. The shows will contain “the same tough, fair, smart perspective” that Kelly burnished during her heyday as a primetime anchor on Fox News and a morning anchor on NBC. Her first project: A new podcast, “The Megyn Kelly Show,” that is expected to debut the week of September 28.
“With Devil May Care Media, I answer only to my audience and my conscience. Those who like what I have to say will find the experience deeply rewarding. Those who don’t can look elsewhere,” Kelly said in a statement. “The point is to give the audience authentic content that goes places where traditional media can’t or — more often — won’t. It’s a great challenge that will reconnect me with my audience and I’m excited to get started.”
During her time on the media scene, Kelly has captured sizable interest and generated controversy in equal measure. Fox News’ decision to make her part of the network’s primetime lineup in 2013 quickly captured a sizable audience and expanded her profile. NBC News tried to harness that attention by luring her to its fold in 2017 and launching a Sunday newsmagazine and daily morning program with her at the helm, but failed to capture similar momentum, Kelly, always outspoken, parted ways with NBC News after a discussion about the use of blackface in Halloween costumes on an October, 2018 broadcast of her morning show offended audiences and staffers. Her financial ties to NBCUniversal after the two sides reached a settlement are believed to have ended in April of this year.
Since her departure, she has occasionally dipped back into the media stream. In November of last year, Kelly posted a seven-minute-plus interview with Ashley Bianco, a former ABC News and CBS News producer, who had been accused of leaking a video to conservative activist group Project Veritas of a visibly frustrated Amy Robach discussing how ABC News had not allowed her to air what was purported to be an in-depth interview with a victim of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. And she has surfaced intermittently since then, offering her take on the 2019 film “Bombshell,” which tackled the story of Roger Ailes’ ouster from Fox News Channel in 2016.
Kelly isn’t the first TV journalist to take to social and digital media. Katie Couric, the former “Today” and “CBS Evening News” anchor, currently publishes a morning newsletter that often has advertising support from Sleep Number and Procter & Gamble. Trish Regan, the Fox Business Network anchor who parted ways with that outlet in March after running a segment that questioned the legitimacy of the coronavirus pandemic, recently launched an independent web site.
Kelly’s Devil May Care Media has struck a partnership with Red Seat Ventures, a media production company that will help produce and manage her show. The company is led by Christopher Balfe, former CEO of TheBlaze and president of Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck’s production company, and Kevin Balfe. a former senior vice president at Mercury Radio Arts. Red Seat Ventures’ clients include former HLN personality Nancy Grace and Fox Sports anchor Colin Cowherd.
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