Megyn Kelly will be taking the 9 p.m. ET Fox News slot currently occupied by Sean Hannity, according to the Drudge Report. The announcement is reportedly set for later this month and would mean the network’s first major primetime change in a decade.
“It’s all about Megyn,” a Fox insider told Drudge. “She is the new face of cable news. She has it all!”
Fox News announced last month that Kelly was moving to the network’s primetime lineup but did not announce a new show for her. Fox said at the time it had signed long-term deals with all of its evening anchors and hosts, including Hannity.
“We will neither confirm nor deny any programming schedule changes,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement. “As previously stated, the network has signed long-term deals with Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier, Shepard Smith, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren.”
Kelly left her daytime show “America Live with Megyn Kelly” to go on maternity leave last month. She gave birth to her third child on 7/26.
If confirmed, at 9 p.m., Kelly would be up against hosts Piers Morgan on CNN and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.
Meanwhile, MSNBC is said to be planning a show for Alec Baldwin that would be broadcast once a week on Fridays at 10 p.m.
Hannity weighed in on the report of Kelly’s move to the Fox News 9 p.m. prime-time block during his radio show, saying he’s “very happy” with the way things are turning out, and that it has no negative implications for his career.
“Let’s just say in the end I’m very happy. That’s all I can say at this point,” he said Thursday.
However, he didn’t say anything about his future on Fox.
RBR-TVBR observation: Hannity will likely push Greta Van Susteren to 11PM and take her 10PM slot. If they still need to re-run 8 PM O’Reilly, then they’ll do it at midnight instead of 11PM.
