Megyn Kelly’s future at NBC is up in the air as the presenter was absent from her show this morning, with the network confirming that she’ll be taking the rest of the week off amid rumours of cancellation following her controversial defence of blackface.

“Given the circumstances, ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ will be on tape the rest of the week,” an NBC spokesperson told the Huffington Post on Thursday (October 25th), after a re-run of the show had aired that morning.

Kelly, a former Fox News host and who joined NBC in January 2017 on a three-year contract to run the 9am morning show, faced an immediate backlash on two days ago after she asked what was racist about white people darkening their skin (and vice versa) for the purposes of Halloween costumes.

“When I was a kid, that was okay, so long as you were dressing up as a character,” Kelly, who was born in 1970, told an all-white panel at the time. “I can’t keep up with the number of people we’re offending just by being normal people.”

Megyn KellyMegyn Kelly was not on the air on Thursday morning

She received sharp opprobrium on social media soon afterwards, and scheduled interviews with the likes of showrunners from ‘House of Cards’ ahead of its upcoming final season have since cancelled on her.

“I was wrong and I am sorry,” Kelly said the morning after. “The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense.”

NBC News head Andy Lack is reported to have said at a staff meeting the following day that: “there is no other way to put this: I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them.”

Also in the aftermath of the blackface controversy, Kelly parted ways with major talent agency CAA and hired veteran celebrity attorney Bryan Freedman on Wednesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Many suggest that this is a sign she’s preparing for a litigation battle against NBC.

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