Megyn Kelly leaving Fox News for rival NBC News

LOS ANGELES - Megyn Kelly has decided to move to NBC News from Fox News Channel, according to a spokesperson for NBC News, setting in motion a seismic shift in the TV-news business that will leave a major gap in the prime time schedule of one of 21st Century Fox's most important operations while sending NBCUniversal scurrying to accommodate a new set of programs built around the outsize talent.

Representatives for the popular anchor and for Fox News Channel could not be reached for immediate comment.

Under a new deal, which was announced Tuesday, Kelly will join NBC News later in 2017, and will anchor what NBC billed as 'a new one hour daytime program that she will develop closely with NBC News colleagues.” The show is expected to air Monday through Friday at a time to be announced in coming months. NBC already airs four hours of 'Today” each weekday and it remained unclear as to whether the network intended to use any of the time it already devotes to that morning franchise to her new show. Kelly also will anchor a new Sunday-evening newsmagazine show and contribute to NBC News' breaking-news, political and special-events coverage.

'Over a dozen years ago I started at Fox News in a job that would change my life. Now, I have decided to end my time at FNC, incredibly enriched for the experiences I've had. I have agreed to join NBC News, where I will be launching a new daytime show Monday through Friday, along with a Sunday evening news magazine program. I also will participate in NBC's breaking news coverage and its political and special events coverage,” Kelly said in a statement posted on Facebook. 'While I will greatly miss my colleagues at Fox, I am delighted to be joining the NBC News family and taking on a new challenge. I remain deeply grateful to Fox News, to Rupert, Lachlan and James Murdoch, and especially to all of the FNC viewers, who have taught me so much about what really matters. More to come soon.”

News of the anchor's switch was previously reported by The New York Times.

'Megyn is an exceptional journalist and news anchor, who has had an extraordinary career” said Andrew Lack, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, in a prepared statement. 'She's demonstrated tremendous skill and poise, and we're lucky to have her.”

Kelly's switch caps off a period of furious speculation about her next move. Since launching a prime time show at Fox News in 2013, Kelly has broken out as an anchor who declined to toe the party line at Fox News, where fellow anchors Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity offered a voice of resistance, so to speak, against the current Obama administration.