When then-host Megyn Kelly was forced out of NBC News in 2019, many in the television industry assumed her broadcasting career was over, but Kelly’s popularity remains roughly the same today.
According to viewership figures released by Kelly’s team at Semaphore, Kelly’s show is not only one of the most-listened-to shows on SiriusXM, but also one of the top 10 podcasts in the country, with viewership that exceeds that of some mainstream news stations on YouTube.
Kelly boasts that, despite having a staff of just six, she has achieved numbers that rival traditional media accounts: With 2.3 million subscribers, The Megyn Kelly Show’s YouTube channel garnered 116.8 million views in July, more than the official channels of NBC News (78 million), CBS News (83 million), Sky News (87 million), BBC News (72 million) and CNBC (17 million).
“I think people are used to being in front of a camera and hearing the news, so they’re used to it,” Kelly said of her growth on YouTube. “I’m also half Italian and half Irish, so if you watch the show, you’ll definitely pick up on things from hand gestures and facial expressions that you wouldn’t pick up if you were just listening. Sometimes with the news these days, it’s absolutely necessary to roll your eyes, tap your forehead, or throw your pen.”
In an interview with Semaphore last year, Kelly said that after he was forced out of NBC News, he met with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who encouraged him to turn to podcasting, but he worried he wouldn’t find an audience in the digital medium.
The independent, off-cable route has given second lives to other former personalities who no longer have a home on traditional TV. Former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan left the network to launch his own publication, Zeteo, which gained a strong subscriber base in less than six months and has attracted around 370,000 subscribers on YouTube. Though his tenure after leaving CNN was a bit turbulent, former anchor Don Lemon proved he could still bring on big-name guests and capture audience attention with his interview-focused YouTube show.