Clay’s Idea to Save CNN: Hire Megyn Kelly

CLAY: Buck, you teased that you have a Jeff Zucker story, the former head of CNN. What happened?

BUCK: In my very limited interactions from over there, I was actually always surprised when he knew my name and would come over to talk to me when I was a short-term contributor over at CNN, but he did. And on the terrorism stuff a few times, he came over and he was like, “That was really good. You’re really astute. You really know your stuff,” and I was like, “Of course. Come on. I’m Buck Sexton! Give me a break. No big deal.”

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: But whatever. But I remember they asked to extend me after the Trump election and I was like, “This place is completely lost.” I was just always going in there texting my friends, “This place has lost its mind, like, they think Trump is worse than Stalin. I mean, they’re completely crazy, “and I was in the lobby, ’cause I was doing an HLN show for a friend of mine who was hosting a show there.

I was a guest on an HLN show after I had said I didn’t want a contract extension from CNN — and I had no TV job, which is like unheard of in TV, like, “You don’t want to be on a hundred million home cable network or whatever?” No, I didn’t, ’cause they’re crazy. And, for whatever reason, Zucker happened to walk past me in the lobby at CNN. (laughing) The last thing I ever got to say to him, he looked me up and down, and he goes, “What do you think you’re doing here?” just like that, and I was like… (laughing)

CLAY: Like, in a negative way, like, he was, like —

BUCK: Yeah, of course.

CLAY: — disgusted that you turned down their offer?

BUCK: Like, I thought he might tell security to escort me out ’cause I told him I didn’t want to work there anymore. He’s like, “What are you doing here?” I was like, doing… I didn’t have like a good quip or comeback, so I was like, uh-oh. Just said, “I’m doing my friend’s show.” They let me do it. Oh. I was never back on the show, by the way. Never. You’re officially banned from there, but, by the way, maybe not anymore. Maybe the Zucker reign of terror is over.

CLAY: Maybe not, now, that Jeff Zucker’s gone.

BUCK: Clay, maybe we would both be welcome to try to win the libs over, to try to bring them to the side of sanity. They could have conservatives on. You can’t ’cause of Fox. But I could. I could go over there and tell them to stop being crazy.

CLAY: So that could be one suggestion would be to bring Buck in. But here’s my thing. If you truly had some testicular fortitude, whoever takes over at CNN, you look at the numbers; they’re in an incredibly difficult spot, and so my suggestion? Go hire Megyn Kelly. Go hire Megyn Kelly and put her in. I don’t know if she’d do it, but Megyn Kelly in for the Chris Cuomo chair, because you send an immediate message.

In the middle of Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon, “Hey, we’re back to being somewhat sane.” Megyn Kelly has a big fan base. I think she’s done well with her podcast. I did it on Monday, by the way. I know that the situation at NBC didn’t go well. But that’s partly, I think, a function of NBC just being a den of thieves, right — I mean, just a cesspool.

And so we know how good Megyn Kelly was in the evenings on Fox News, how great her audience was. She’s fearless; she’s smart. And it would send a message that is, “We’re not going to continue to be a far-left-wing network that no one watches.” The data on this… I mean, you just look at the numbers, Buck, I mean, Tucker and Sean have more Democratic viewers than MSNBC or CNN do in the 25 to 54 demo.

I was just reading it in The Wrap today just right before we were about to go on the show. So CNN is not even getting left wing viewers. I’d go get Megyn Kelly. If I were fearless and I were trying to remake that network, you know you have all sorts of issues now with men, right? You kept Jeffrey Toobin. You now are having to get rid of Zucker and you had to get rid of Cuomo. Bringing in a woman I think is smart, regardless, and you gotta shake things up in a big way.

BUCK: Just so everyone remembers this to give you a sense of how much CNN has changed — and this was really — and I remember growing up CNN was around long before Fox so when you thought of cable news, CNN was the 24-hour news channel until Fox came around in 1996, and it took a couple of years for Fox to really grow its massive audience, right? So, in the early nineties, it was CNN, man. That was the only game in town for cable news.

CLAY: Rupert Murdoch was crazy to start a news network.

BUCK: Yeah. But Tucker got his start at CNN on TV, right?

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: You think back to this, like, this used to be a place where conservatives would go through and conservatives aren’t even allowed in the building anymore, folks. That’s how crazy it is.

CLAY: It is pretty wild. You think that’s a crazy idea, Megyn Kelly to CNN?

BUCK: No, I think there could even be discussions underway, for all I know. Who knows?

CLAY: Yeah, who knows? I mean, I think it’s actually a smart move if CNN’s trying to matter going forward.