Megyn Kelly Says Jeff Zucker Made Her a ‘Huge Offer’ to Come to CNN

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly revealed on one of the latest episodes of The Megyn Kelly Show that former CNN head honcho Jeff Zucker made her a “huge offer” to jump ship to his network.

Kelly’s reveal came during a discussion with Buck Sexton, co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, about the rocky debut of CNN+.

“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, referring to reports alleging low subscriber numbers for CNN+, the cable news network’s new streaming service.

“I do love all of the jokes about how while Elon [Musk] is offering to buy Twitter for tens of billions, there are lots of people out there right now who are willing to buy CNN+ for tens of dollars,” Sexton, himself a former CNN contributor, said of the streaming service.

The two discussed various CNN hosts, including Jake Tapper whom Kelly called

a “personal friend” and “favorite CNNer” while Sexton criticized him as “kind of a nasty guy,” when CNN+’s splashy Chris Wallace hire came up. Wallace made headlines when he jumped from to CNN+ ahead of its launch after 18 years at Fox News. He now hosts a talk show there, and has objected to Fox’s news coverage, saying it became “unsustainable” for him to continue working at the network.

“He was in last place every week, every year, every month. He was always in last, and they still paid him,” Kelly said of Wallace, recalling her time at Fox. She then revealed that when she was at Fox News she received a similar offer from Zucker to jump ship to CNN.

“I considered going to CNN. CNN made me a huge offer. Huge,” Kelly said. She ended up leaving Fox News in 2017 for NBC News. Despite the “huge offer” from CNN, Kelly said she could she the writing on the wall and it spelled disaster.

“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,” she said, adding that she sees Wallace “suffering from that very problem right now.”

According to a recent CNBC report, CNN+ has been drawing 10,000 daily viewers since its debut on March 29. Outgoing WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar claimed earlier this month, however, that the streaming service’s debut has exceeded his expectations.