Megyn Kelly revealed former head of CNN Jeff Zucker offered her a spot at the outlet on a recent episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show.”
The mention happened during Kelly’s discussion about the debut of CNN+ with Buck Sexton, co-host of “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.”
CNN’s hire of Chris Wallace from Fox News brought about Kelly’s reveal. Wallace, who was at Fox News for 18 years, now hosts a talk show for CNN+ after he said working for Fox had become “unsustainable.”
“He was in last place every week, every year, every month,” Kelly said of Wallace, recalling her time at Fox. “He was always in last, and they still paid him.”
She then said she received a similar offer to jump ship for CNN.
“I considered going to CNN. CNN made me a huge offer. Huge,” Kelly said. “I said no, Buck, because I knew: who is my fanbase going to be over there? I knew who my fans were and I knew that my Fox viewers were not going to follow me to CNN and that the CNN viewers were going to hate my guts,” Kelly said, adding that she sees Wallace “suffering from that very problem right now.”
She ended up leaving Fox News in 2017 for NBC News.
Since its launch, CNN+ has not done as well as hoped for, and Kelly addressed this, specifically the low number of subscribers and CNN’s already low ratings. A CNBC report listed daily users as barely filling the 10,000 mark, but outgoing WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar claimed that the new streaming service’s performance has surpassed his expectations.
“Who is the moron at CNN who actually thought, ‘you know what we need with our ratings in the toilet?’ More of us. We need more CNN,” Kelly said.
