Slowly but surely, Megyn Kelly is expanding her brand beyond “Fox News anchor.” For Kelly watchers, this raises a big question: Will she ultimately break from the network completely?
On Wednesday, Variety reported that the news superstar will produce Embeds, a new comedy series following a presidential campaign and the embedded journalists who cover it. Michael de Luca—whose notable production credits include Fifty Shades of Grey— has also signed on as a producer of the show.
Embeds isn’t Kelly’s first non-news project. The anchor is also developing and producing a political drama called The Residence (Kevin Spacey is a fellow producer) and has inked a book deal with HarperCollins Publishers that is reportedly worth $10 million. In May, she tried her hand at a prime-time special, Megyn Kelly Presents, which featured a much-hyped interview with GOP nominee Donald Trump.
With all these projects percolating, it’s clear that the anchor wants to grow her career beyond the confines of The Kelly File. At the same time, she has publicly teased the idea of leaving Fox News, where she has been a news anchor for over a decade. Her contract with the network expires after the election, and she hinted to Variety in an interview that she might be ready to move on. “There’s a lot of brain damage that comes from the job,” she said then. (Fox News referred Coins2Day to Megyn Kelly’s media team, which has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story.)
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The fallout from Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment suit against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes (which the network settled on his behalf) may also be a factor. One prominent anchor, Greta van Susteren, has already left the network in the wake of the settlement.
Finally, there are Kelly’s own experiences with the Fox News culture to consider: New York Magazine reported that Kelly told investigators that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances toward her about a decade ago, when she was a young correspondent at the network.