Is this the end for Megyn Kelly?

Two years after Megyn Kelly was wooed from Fox News by NBC, her star power has burnt out after comments this week about blackface.

Megyn Kelly was absent from her NBC News morning show overnight following controversy over her comments about blackface, amid indications that her time at the network could be ending after less than two years.

An NBC spokeswoman said that “given the circumstances,” the network was airing repeats of Megyn Kelly Today on Thursday and Friday.

During a segment about Halloween costumes on Tuesday, Kelly defended the use of blackface while discussing a character on Real Housewives of New York City who darkened her face for a Diana Ross costume. She said it was acceptable when she was a kid when portraying a character.

“But what is racist? Because truly do you get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, a black person who puts on white face for Halloween?” she said.

“Back when I was a kid that was okay as long as you were like dressing up as a character.” Social media condemnation was swift, and Kelly apologised to fellow NBC staffers in an email later in the day. Yet both NBC’s Nightly News and the Today show did stories on their colleague’s comment. Al Roker said “she owes a big apology to people of colour across the country.”

She opened Wednesday’s show by saying she was wrong and sorry for what she said. “I have never been a PC kind of person, but I do understand the value of being sensitive to our history, particularly on race and ethnicity,” she said. The reference to political correctness in a discussion about blackface struck some critics as odd, along with the show’s cameras panning over the audience giving her a standing ovation for nearly 20 seconds.

The Wall Street Journal reports that NBC News is expected to pull the plug on Kelly’s morning show, and the TV anchor’s future with the network is in doubt, people familiar with the matter said.

NBC News Chairman Andy Lack chided Kelly on Wednesday during a “town hall” meeting of staffers. Lack told staffers, “I condemn those remarks,” adding “there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them,” according to a person at the meeting.

He said the network “will sort through this with Megyn.” Kelly’s show, which airs in the 9am hour, is likely to end in the imminent future, a person close to the situation said. A replacement could be on the air by Monday. The tensions between Kelly and NBC News could ultimately lead to her departure, this person said.

Kelly, who was wooed away from her prime-time perch at Fox News in 2017 with a three-year deal valued at $US69 million ($97m), hasn’t delivered the ratings the network wanted. A Sunday evening magazine show hosted by her was short-lived and Megyn Kelly Today has a much smaller audience than the 9am hour of Today hosted by Roker and Tamron Hall did.

About a month ago, Kelly approached Lack about possibly finding a new role at NBC News. When she originally came to NBC and took the morning show, she indicated she felt she was done with politics and was looking to do more lifestyle reporting.

The transition, though, has been rocky at best. A person close to Kelly said she doesn’t just want to do soft news in the morning. She has participated in some NBC News reporting as well, including coverage of the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court.

Megyn Kelly with Donald Trump during an interview.

While the “blackface” controversy appears to be driving NBC’s urgency to make a change, tensions between Kelly and NBC News brass, particularly Lack, have been brewing for some time, people familiar with the matter said.

Kelly’s aggressive coverage of the #MeToo movement has also rubbed some at NBC News the wrong way, as she hasn’t shied from harassment stories involving NBC News personalities, including Tom Brokaw and former Today anchor Matt Lauer, people at the network said.

Lauer was fired for inappropriate behaviour with a colleague and Brokaw was accused of unwanted advances in a story in The Washington Post. Lauer apologised but contested some accounts of his behaviour, while Brokaw denied the allegations.

Megyn Kelly at The Met gala last year.

More recently, Kelly weighed in on the decision by NBC News to pass on a story about allegations of harassment by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein by Ronan Farrow. Farrow ended up publishing the story at the New Yorker and it won a Pulitzer Prize. Weinstein has denied ever forcing himself on anyone.

NBC News has said the story as presented to them wasn’t suitable for air. However, the network’s decision to punt the story has been scrutinised in media circles. Kelly went so far as to suggest on her show that the network should hire an outside investigator to probe the decision process on not airing the story.

“There’s the question of the faith and confidence of the public in the reporting of NBC on matters involving itself,” Kelly said on her show six weeks ago. “For me, as a lawyer, it’s always better if you just send it outside. And then people can have more faith in it.”

NBC representatives said they had no comment beyond the discussion of why Kelly wasn’t on the air Thursday.

All of this points toward a likely exit from NBC by Kelly, who has found it difficult to maintain a loyal constituency. Many of her former Fox News Channel viewers were upset by a perceived disloyalty in leaving and her clashes with President Donald Trump during his campaign. At the same time, her former association with Fox caused some NBC colleagues and viewers to regard her with suspicion.

Kelly’s viewers were given no reason for her absence; a notice on the screen said the show was “previously recorded.” There were indications that the plans had come about quickly. “Happy Friday,” she said at the opening of the taped show on Thursday.

“The Real Housewives of New York City” episode aired on the NBC-owned Bravo network, with character Luann deLesseps wearing a gigantic Afro to portray Ross. After criticism surfaced about her costume, she said she was tanned and used a bronzer, but was not trying to appear in blackface.

The Wall Street Journal, AP