Fact Check: Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens Signed $700M CBS Deal To Compete with ‘The View’?
One Facebook user commented of the purported news, “If Candace Owen’s [sic] ran for presidency I’d vote fir her in a heartbeat.”
Published Nov. 6, 2024
Image courtesy of Housewives Daily Drama/Facebook
Conservative commentators Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens signed a $700 million deal with CBS for a morning show to compete with ABC’s “The View.”
A rumor that conservative commentators Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens signed a $700 deal with CBS for a morning show to compete with ABC’s “The View” circulated online in fall 2024. Snopes readers were searching for information about this claim.
In our research, we found that, on Nov. 4, a new Facebook page named Housewives Daily Drama posted (archived), “Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens Sign $700 Million Deal with CBS for Morning Show to Compete with ‘The View.'” The post received more than 105,000 reactions.
Another Facebook page named Current Events also posted (archived) the same supposed news item on Nov. 4. That post received more than 27,000 reactions.
Some readers responding to the posts seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. For example, one reader not questioning the story commented on Facebook, “If Candace Owen’s [sic] ran for presidency I’d vote fir her in a heartbeat.” Another user remarked, “It’s true! It’s time the toxic view goes off air.”
However, as the Lead Stories fact-checking website previously reported, there was no evidence of Kelly and Owens signing a deal with CBS. Rather, the rumor about Kelly and Owens originated with the SpaceXMania.com network of satire and parody news. SpaceXMania.com previously posted (archived) a similar story on their SpaceX Fanclub Facebook page. The page’s bio mentioned both satire and parody, and also read, “We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real.”
The SpaceXMania.com network further published an article (archived) on esspots.com on Sept. 26, 2024. That article’s headline read, “Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens Sign $400 Million Deal with CBS for Morning Show to Rival ‘The View.'”
A disclaimer on the website began:
Welcome to the U.S. page of Esspots (A subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News), your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America. Our team of writers and editors is dedicated to bringing you the latest and greatest in fake news and absurdity, all with a healthy dose of humor and satire.
On this page, you can expect to find all sorts of hilarious stories and parodies about US politics, culture, and society. From outrageous conspiracy theories to outlandish political stunts, we’ve got it all covered.
After its initial publishing in September, the fictional story spread once again in early November, right around the U.S. Election Day.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims about Owens and “The View” in the past, including the assertion that Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin all said they would quit if the show hired Owens as a new host.
