SOMEWHERE, ROGER AILES IS SMILING: Male Megyn Kelly staffer fired after reporting ‘toxic and demeaning’ work culture. “Kevin Bleyer was fired as a writer from ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ this week after complaining that Kelly’s two top execs, Jackie Levin and Christine Cataldi, were bullying lower level members of staff. He was fired even though Kelly has made fighting abuse her personal crusade. Plus, in the wake of Matt Lauer’s firing, NBC ordered all staff to report workplace bad behavior, supposedly without fear or reprisal.”

What kind of sucker would believe that, or that it applied to men?

WOULDN’T IT BE IRONIC IF ROGER AILES WAS HER BIGGEST FAN? Megyn Kelly’s Audience Drops 42% From Last Week. What’s really troubling is that the geriatric 60 Minutes clobbered her in the 25-54 demographic.

BOMBSHELL IS A DUD:

There is an exciting story behind Ailes’ downfall. It is the one where [Gretchen] Carlson risks [Roger] Ailes’ legendarily vindictive wrath to build a David vs. Goliath lawsuit against him, including secretly recording their meetings. Instead, Bombshell is a movie about [Megyn] Kelly’s decision to follow Carlson’s lead. That is not the main story material. That is a detail to be included in the epilogue to a better movie.

Still though, Bombshell will make the serviceable b-movie half of a great double-feature, once Hollywood releases the sequel, which focuses on Matt Lauer, Tom Brokaw, Chris Matthews, Touré Neblett, and the rest of the craziness over at NBC…

CNN: MEGYN KELLY’S “EXIT FROM THE 9 A.M. HOUR OF THE ‘TODAY’ SHOW APPEARS TO BE IMMINENT. Variety reported on Wednesday evening that Kelly and NBC News executives have had conversations about a new role for her.  A person familiar with the matter confirmed that to CNN Business and said Kelly’s show will be ending. Negotiations about the end date and other details are still underway, the person said. Kelly’s offensive remarks about blackface Halloween costumes on Tuesday have raised more questions about her future at NBC. Spokespeople for NBC News declined to comment, and most staffers at the news division remain in the dark.”

Related: Megyn Kelly Desperately Grovels to her New Friends on the Left After Committing Wrongthink.

As Glenn tweeted tonight, “Roger Ailes’ longterm plan to wreck a competitor bears fruit.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Hey, I called it over a year ago.

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW:” MEGYN KELLY WARNS NBC STAFF WHO DEFENDED TOM BROKAW.

She’ll catch hell for this even though she says she’s skeptical of the allegations against Brokaw too. But she’s right. In the end, all you can say of a friend’s behavior behind closed doors is “He doesn’t seem like the type,” which is worth next to nothing. Does no one remember all of the Foxies who sneered when Gretchen Carlson first accused Roger Ailes of harassment?

* * * * * * * * *

The risk isn’t that they’ll end up being personally embarrassed if more dirt comes out on him; the risk is that there are women who are right now weighing whether to speak up about him and suddenly find themselves discouraged because the most prominent progressive female stars at the network are laying out the case for skepticism preemptively. If you’ve been harassed, you expect the man who harassed you to call you a liar. You don’t expect liberal heartthrob Rachel Maddow to signal you’re probably a liar before you’ve even opened your mouth.

What do you do in this situation if you’re Maddow, then? You don’t want to let a friend be hanged in the court of public opinion when all of the evidence you have on him suggests he’s not guilty. But you don’t want to be Hannity either, assuming that you have all of the evidence, period, when you don’t. #MeToo is a witch hunt with the twist that some of the accused really are witches.

That wouldn’t be first time that was proven true of a so-called “witch hunt.”

ROGER AILES’ EVIL-GENIUS PLAN TO SINK THE COMPETITION CONTINUES TO BEAR FRUIT: NBC bet $69 Million on Megyn Kelly — then viewers vanished.

(Classical reference in headline.)

ROGER AILES’ EVIL-GENIUS PLAN TO SINK THE COMPETITION CONTINUES TO BEAR FRUIT: Inside the toxic atmosphere at ‘Megyn Kelly Today.’

(Classical reference in headline.)

ROGER AILES’ EVIL-GENIUS PLAN TO SINK THE COMPETITION CONTINUES TO BEAR FRUIT: Matt Lauer throws Megyn Kelly under the bus.

(Classical reference in headline.)

ROGER AILES’ EVIL-GENIUS PLAN TO SINK THE COMPETITION CONTINUES TO BEAR FRUIT: It’s just getting worse for “Megyn Kelly Today.”

UH-OH: Megyn Kelly’s ratings hit ‘possible all-time low.’

Her “Megyn Kelly Today” viewership slipped from 0.77 ratings points on Monday to 0.54 ratings points on Tuesday of last week.

“It’s a possible all-time low for ‘Today.’ It may even be lower than her [Fox] cable show. [NBC News president] Noah [Oppenheim] and [NBC News and MSNBC chairman] Andy [Lack] are in big trouble,” a source told us.

Another source added, “That’s a big drop. They have to turn this around.”

Kelly also appeared for the first time on MSNBC earlier this week.

“It’s unthinkable. You don’t see Matt [Lauer] or Savannah [Guthrie] on MSNBC … It’s not a good sign.”

FLASHBACK: Roger Ailes’ Evil-Genius Plan to Sink the Competition Bears Fruit.

ROGER AILES’ EVIL-GENIUS PLAN TO SINK THE COMPETITION BEARS FRUIT: Celebrity Publicists Don’t Want Their Clients Appearing On Megyn Kelly Today. “One publicist said they didn’t want their client to schmooze with Kelly, because her brand is too alienating, as a result of her association to the conservative news network. ‘I don’t even know if it’s as much her as it is Fox News,’ the publicist said. ‘Because she came from Fox News, she was set up for failure because the industry is so polarized now and no one wants to touch anything associated with Trump.’”

Despite her constant feuds with Trump. Or as Ace warned in June, “That said, to hell with MeAgain Kelly. She thought she would be accepted by the liberals; like Bret Stephens, she’s finding that the liberals only cheered her when she was a saboteur operating behind enemy lines. But they damn sure don’t want Bret Stephens or MeAgain behind their own lines…You know, Benedict Arnold expected to be treated like a hero by the British he gave West Point to. Instead, he lived miserably thereafter, shunned by the people he expected to embrace him. No one ever really trusts a turncoat. Even the people the turncoat turns coat to be amongst.”

(Classical reference in headline.)

ROGER AILES’ EVIL-GENIUS PLAN TO SINK THE COMPETITION BEARS FRUIT: EXCLUSIVE: NBC’s ‘$69 MILLION mistake!’ Network executives slam the floundering Megyn Kelly as they reveal she is making $23M yearly in a three-year deal for her morning show – rivaling salaries of Matt Lauer and Jimmy Fallon. “The network that created Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw and Matt Lauer will now forever be remembered for the $69 million hire of Megyn Kelly. When you add the cost of developing the show, hiring staff and promoting Megyn all the time, this adds up to a $100 million mistake. . . . What’s even more insulting is that each member of the NBC anchor team was made to heap praise on Megyn, while she is taking home more money than most of them.”

A MIGHTY WIND: Hurricane Trump blows away speech police: With every windy pronouncement, the cacophony cops look weaker and sillier. “In a sane world, we wouldn’t need Trump to save us from the cacophony cops. . . . But we don’t live there anymore.”