Millions Of Viewers Bail On Megyn Kelly — Will The Sponsors Go, Too?

By: Joseph Curl

Last Sunday, when Megyn Kelly hosted the second installment of her new NBC show, interviewing a beautiful female sports reporter who was once filmed naked without her knowledge, CBS aired a repeat of a “60 Minutes” show.

CBS crushed NBC, with ratings more than double the viewership of Kelly’s show, 7.9 million viewers versus 3.6 million. Kelly’s viewership dropped 42 percent from its debut episode the week before.

And since then, things have gotten worse. A lot worse.

Kelly on Sunday is set to air on interview she did with controversial radio talk show host Alex Jones. Jones, a showman who gets wacky from time to time, loves conspiracy theories — like the government is poisoning our water with fluoride and the mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School never happened. But ever since word emerged that she sits down with Jones, critics have been calling for a boycott of the show and advertisers are reportedly getting skittish.

“Insiders told us that staff were in panicked meetings all day on Monday. ‘It’s a s - - t show. No one wants to withstand a whole week of criticism over this. There are a number of people who want to pull the interview,’ ” The New York Post reported.

Then again, the Post notes that all press is good press. “[A]nother source told us NBC needs the controversy to shake up their Sunday night and to bring new viewers. ‘No one expected sponsors to pull out, but this is why they hired Megyn. They expect to lose and gain viewers and they want the buzz.’ ”

And that’s just what’s happening. Multiple advertisers are bailing on Sunday’s show, something NBC News chairman Andy Lack told CNN “comes with the territory.”

“We kind of know, when we’re doing controversial stories, that’s going to happen. It doesn’t stop us from doing controversial stories,” Lack said. He said most were small advertisers who vowed to come back after the controversial show airs, but at least one big company, J.P. Morgan Chase, has decided to pull its ads, too.

Of course, this is likely all much ado about nothing. Kelly, known as a jump out “journalist,” will no doubt bully Jones, interrupting often and splicing together a piece that makes him look as silly as possible. On the other hand, Jones doesn’t need much help, and even he can see what’s coming. He’s helping to push a bid to keep NBC from airing his interview with Kelly.

“I’m calling for @megynkelly to cancel the airing of our interview for misrepresenting my views on Sandy Hook,” Jones tweeted, along with a link to a YouTube video. “Megyn Kelly lied to me several weeks before she came here. She said the interview was not gonna’ be about Sandy Hook and the mass shooting there, and it was not gonna be about PizzaGate and these other issues that the media always obsesses on, and misrepresents what I’ve said and what I’ve done.”

Kelly has already lost a small gig: The Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, a nonprofit group opposed to gun violence, dropped her as host of an annual gala.

But Kelly has pushed back: “I find Alex Jones’s suggestion that Sandy Hook was ‘a hoax’ as personally revolting as every other rational person does.  It left me, and many other Americans, asking the very question that prompted this interview:  how does Jones, who traffics in these outrageous conspiracy theories, have the respect of the president of the United States and a growing audience of millions?

“President Trump, by praising and citing him, appearing on his show, and giving him White House press credentials, has helped elevate Jones, to the alarm of many,” Kelly said. “Our goal in sitting down with him was to shine a light – as journalists are supposed to do – on this influential figure, and yes – to discuss the considerable falsehoods he has promoted with near impunity.”