NBC's broadcast of a much-scrutinized episode of Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, which led with a segment about controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, appeared to run with fewer than the usual amount of commercials that typically accompany a first-run program. Relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook attack urged NBC to pull the plug on the interview so as not to allow Jones a larger platform for his views, while Kelly defended the segment, maintaining it had journalistic value. But he added that he remained skeptical after he "watched the footage" of children leaving the building.
"I tend to believe that children probably did die there".
Meanwhile, Sunday's episode of 60 Minutes drew an average of 5.31 million viewers and a 0.7 rating in the news demo, marking the third straight week the veteran news program has bested Kelly's show in total viewers. "But then you look at all the other evidence on the other side, I could see how other people believe that nobody died there".
Audio of the interview leaked prior to the telecast when Jones posted it online in an effort to discredit Kelly's line of questioning.
"Parents should never have to bury their own children", Jones said.
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Khalid said he went into shock after the collision happened and others on the scene had to lift the van in order to remove him. The attack is the latest in a series of terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in the past few months.
Kelly's first episode came out of the gate rather strong, averaging 6.2 million viewers. An unaired segment obtained by Huffington Post showed Kelly telling him that "virtually every person we have met on the street says what they respect about you is they feel that you have returned dignity to Russian Federation".
Setting the cautionary aspects of dealing with such a personality aside, "Sunday Night" can only be judged by what made it onto the screen, which began with Kelly promising to "confront [Jones] on his notorious lie about the Sandy Hook massacre".
Kelly has stood by her decision to allow Jones to share his story. Her star power had grown after she challenged Trump during a 2015 Republican debate on his history of sexist remarks and the candidate responded with a series of angry tweets and other comments, sometimes crude and personal, and boycotted a later debate because she was one of the moderators. If all Kelly did was to compel much of her audience to shake their heads and ask, "Wait - you mean millions of people believe this disgusting idiot?", then her segment was worth it.
Before the interview aired, Kelly drew criticism, with some saying she was giving conservative commentator and conspiracy theorist Jones publicity, according to the Times report.
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