Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly Renews Contract

The Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly Renews Contract

Megyn Kelly has renewed her contract at the Fox News Channel, where she has become one of the channel’s best-known news anchors.

Megyn Kelly has signed a contract to stay at Fox News.

Although some contract renewals are mere formalities, this one was not; Ms. Kelly’s future has been the subject of media speculation since late last year. She took meetings with the heads of at least two other television networks. But she decided to stay at Fox News, where she hosts the two-hour afternoon program “America Live.”

It is unknown whether the contract renewal is a precursor to a more prominent role for Ms. Kelly on Fox, the highest-rated cable news channel in the United States. Talent contracts typically do not guarantee certain time slots, but Ms. Kelly has been mentioned in the past as a candidate for a prime-time program.

A spokeswoman for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. The news of her contract renewal, confirmed by several people with knowledge of the situation, will come as good news to her fans, of which there are many; “America Live” was watched by an average of 1.1 million viewers in the first quarter of the year, slightly more than the shows before and after hers.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because contract talks are usually conducted in secret.

Ms. Kelly has worked at Fox News the last nine years, first as a reporter in Washington and then as an anchor in New York. For the last three years she has led “America Live,” from 1 to 3 p.m. weekdays, and co-anchored special reports on election nights with Bret Baier.

She was widely noticed on election night last year when she walked through the corridors of Fox and asked the channel’s voting analysts about Karl Rove’s assertions that the channel had called the state of Ohio for President Obama prematurely. They not surprisingly defended their decision. The moment became a viral hit and bolstered Ms. Kelly’s personal brand as a part of Fox’s news side, not its opinion side.

Not long after that, the Fox News chief executive, Roger Ailes, acknowledged that “a lot of people will try to recruit her” when her contract came due.

In an interview with TVNewser, Mr. Ailes said “we’d love her to stay here and be even a bigger star.” He added: “I’d be stunned if she wanted to go to any other cable channel. That’s a real dive off a high cliff. If somebody wanted her to host the ‘Today’ show or something, she’d have to look at that I suppose.”

Earlier this year, Ms. Kelly spoke with a number of other channels, including CNN, which was very interested in hiring her, according to one of the people who spoke on condition of anonymity. Her representatives also sought a number of meetings with executives at ABC, stirring speculation that she might be in contention for a spot on “Good Morning America.” But “G.M.A.,” the newly No. 1 network morning show, led by Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, has a rather full bench at the moment, and ABC’s conversations with Ms. Kelly went nowhere.

The channel, thanks in part to Mr. Ailes’s charm, has had a remarkably consistent lineup of hosts and shows for the better part of a decade. It also has its two biggest stars, the 8 p.m. host Bill O’Reilly and the 9 p.m. host Sean Hannity, under contract for several more years, all but ruling out any changes at those hours.

But there might be openings at other times of day. It is unknown when the contract of Greta Van Susteren, the 10 p.m. host, will be up for renewal. Shepard Smith, the 7 p.m. host, has a contract that expires at the end of the year, according to TV Guide. In an interview last month, Mr. Smith said he’d had no contract talks yet, but also said: “I love it at Fox News. I love working for Roger Ailes. I want to do what’s best for everybody involved.”