It had been a moment of rare satisfaction for Megyn Kelly, the radio host and podcaster who had carved out her place in the media world with equal parts defiance and controversy. The news had broken just days earlier that Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show was being canceled by CBS after a decade on air, despite being the highest-rated late-night show in its time slot. To many, it seemed a strange, inexplicable decision. But for Kelly, it felt almost like destiny.

“Finally,” she said with a sense of vindication, her voice steady on the mic as she spoke to her audience. “It seems like the corporate world has finally caught on.” She leaned into her microphone as if she were savoring every word. “Stephen Colbert completely drove The Late Show into the ground.” Her tone was biting, as she recounted how Colbert’s humor had evolved over the years from sharp political satire to a more divisive, increasingly one-sided brand of comedy that, in Kelly’s view, had alienated half of his audience.

Kelly, in her usual fiery fashion, wasn’t done yet. “He desperately wanted to be Keith Olbermann,” she continued, her voice growing more pointed. “And guess what? Keith Olbermann is a failure, and now so are you, Stephen Colbert.”

The remark hung in the air, a sharp jab aimed at a man who had once been a giant in the late-night world. Kelly’s audience, loyal and engaged, could almost feel the tension in her words. For Kelly, this moment felt like a triumph—one that she had been waiting for, a culmination of her own battles against the so-called “liberal elites” that she had long railed against. She had spent years carving out her own path, carving herself as an icon of defiance against the dominant media narrative. And now, seeing Colbert, once the shining star of late-night television, brought low, gave her a sense of justice.

But as with all of Kelly’s most incendiary moments, this one would soon come back to bite her.

Kelly had not been known for humility in her career, a career that had taken her from Fox News, where she had been one of the most polarizing figures in modern television, to NBC, where she had hoped to reinvent herself. Her move to NBC, accompanied by a $69 million deal, had been touted as a new chapter in her career, one that would make her a network anchor in her own right. The glowing promises had quickly turned sour. Her show, Megyn Kelly Today, struggled with dismal ratings, and her infamous defense of blackface costumes during Halloween in 2018 turned the tides even further. The backlash was swift, and the public’s perception of Kelly—already fraught with controversy—plummeted. Despite her apology, Megyn Kelly Today was canceled just over a year after it had begun. NBC, it seemed, was done with her.

As her critics gathered on social media, they quickly reminded her of her own fall from grace. On X (formerly Twitter), the vitriol was palpable. Critics posted images of Kelly’s scandal-ridden tenure at NBC, the infamous “blood coming out of her eyes” comment from Donald Trump during the 2015 Republican debate, and, of course, her controversial defense of blackface. The online backlash to her remarks about Colbert was immediate and unrelenting.

“What’s more embarrassing, Megyn?” one commenter posted. “The fact that Colbert’s show was canceled, or that you were canceled for defending blackface?”

Others joined in, their words sharp and unforgiving: “Megyn Kelly, who literally couldn’t get a show to survive even with a $69 million contract, has the nerve to criticize Stephen Colbert? Maybe you should take your own advice and stay out of the public eye.”

The reaction from her critics was swift and unyielding. It seemed the internet had turned on her once again, and this time, it wasn’t just about her failed career at NBC. It was about the fact that Kelly had once again used her platform to take a shot at someone who had succeeded where she had not. The irony of her comments about Colbert’s failure wasn’t lost on anyone. Here was a woman who had been fired from a network, her show pulled after less than a year, yet she had the audacity to mock Colbert, a man whose career had spanned decades and had built an empire of late-night entertainment.

But Kelly was undeterred. She responded on air with the same defiance that had defined her career. “I’m not apologizing for calling out Colbert,” she said during her next broadcast. “I stand by everything I said. He lost the plot years ago, and I’m just here to say what many of you were thinking. If I’m the villain for speaking the truth, then so be it.”

Her bravado, however, did little to quell the storm. In fact, it only added fuel to the fire. The public had already seen enough of Kelly’s own struggles. She had been a lightning rod for years, attracting both praise and scorn in equal measure. But in this latest skirmish, her criticisms of Colbert felt less like a measured critique and more like a desperate attempt to stay relevant in a media landscape that had moved on without her.

As the days passed, the backlash intensified. Colbert’s fans rallied behind him, while Kelly’s critics dug deeper into her past missteps. The comparison between Colbert’s late-night tenure and Kelly’s disastrous NBC stint was impossible to ignore. The media’s treatment of her fall from grace was painted as an inevitability, while Colbert, despite the cancellation of his show, was seen as a man who had left his mark on the industry. He had been a part of the late-night fabric for years—his humor, though sometimes controversial, had been a fixture in American television.

Kelly’s public comments about Colbert only made her seem more bitter, more desperate for attention in a world where her star had long since dimmed. She had built her career on controversy, but now, with nothing left to lose, her jabs at Colbert felt hollow, like the final attempt of a fallen star to get back into the spotlight. Her words, though harsh and filled with venom, only served to remind everyone that she was, in the end, just another celebrity grappling with her own decline.

For Colbert, the cancellation of The Late Show may have been the end of one era, but the beginning of another. For Kelly, her comments about Colbert were another reminder of her place in a world that had long since moved on from her. The fallout from this latest controversy wasn’t just about ratings or TV contracts—it was about the struggle for relevance in a world that was increasingly unwilling to forgive.

In the end, the public’s focus was clear: Colbert may have lost his show, but his legacy remained intact. As for Megyn Kelly? She was left to fight another battle, this time against the ghosts of her own career.