Megyn Kelly will not be appearing for her hour of the “Today” show on Thursday and would also be off the air Friday as well, the network announced amid growing questions about the show’s future after just over a year on the air.
Reruns are scheduled for both days.
“Given the circumstances, ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ will be on tape the rest of the week,” the network said in a statement.
Kelly’s career at NBC was thrown into turmoil earlier this week after a panel segment in which she defended the use of blackface on Halloween — a comment that sparked immediate backlash, including on-air rebukes by NBC News colleagues like Al Roker.
“What is racist?” Kelly asked Tuesday. “You get in trouble if you’re a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. When I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up as a character.”
Kelly faced withering criticism not just in-house but broadly — including a lengthy denunciation by the NAACP and on Wednesday offered an emotional apology.
“I want to begin with two words, I’m sorry,” said Kelly at the top of her show. “The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor. Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too.”
Kelly then proceeded to host a panel who lectured her about why they said blackface was offensive — even on Halloween.
Though it’s not the first time Kelly has come under fire for comments deemed racially insensitive, this may have been the final straw. By Wednesday evening, there was feverish speculation that Kelly would wind down her show with “Today” by the end of the year and that her future with the network itself could be in doubt.
By the end of the day, Kelly had been dropped by her agency CAA and had retained the services of talent lawyer Bryan Freedman.