HARTFORD, Conn. — The publicity and uproar in the days before Sunday’s broadcast of Megyn Kelly’s interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones didn’t translate into ratings.
The NBC program was seen by 3.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen, an audience dwarfed by CBS rival “60 Minutes,” which drew 5.3 million viewers. “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly” had 6.2 million viewers for Kelly’s interview of Vladimir Putin on the show’s June 4 debut.
In the days preceding her segment on Jones, Kelly had received widespread criticism for giving a platform to a man whose false allegations only added to the pain of the Newtown tragedy and even encouraged people to harass relatives of the victims. In the interview, Jones never gave a direct answer when Kelly pressed him to admit he was wrong and continued to raise questions about the shootings.
A parent of one of the children killed in the 2012 Connecticut school shootings says she won’t view the Megyn Kelly interview of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that aired on NBC’s “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly.”