McDaniel eyes big payout after NBC drama

Will it be the $600,000 interview?

The ramifications of NBC’s decision yesterday to part ways with former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel just two days after her paid network debut on “Meet the Press” are just starting to shake out. But they could be expensive.

McDaniel expects to be fully paid out for her contract — two years at $300,000 annually — since she did not breach its terms, according to a person close to McDaniel. That means that her single, not-quite-20-minute interview Sunday could cost NBC more than $30,000 per minute, or $500 per second.

That might be just the beginning of the fallout following yesterday’s announcement from NBCUniversal News Group Chair Cesar Conde that the deal, first announced on Friday, would be canceled. McDaniel spoke yesterday with Bryan Freedman, renowned lawyer to the estranged cable-news stars, to discuss legal options even beyond recouping the dollar value of her contract.

While no arrangement is final, the person close to McDaniel said, Freedman would be an obvious choice: He represented Megyn Kelly in her own acrimonious parting with NBC, as well as ousted anchors Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson in disputes with their respective former networks.

McDaniel, the person said, is exploring potential defamation and hostile work environment torts after MSNBC’s top talent — momentarily her colleagues — took turns Monday blasting her on air.

NBC declined to comment about the $600,000 figure or her potential claims.

McDaniel was silent yesterday as the fallout from the internal network revolt mounted, and her perspective and role in the deal was largely lost as it unraveled in real time. She and her allies are, unsurprisingly, furious about how everything went down, believing she was misled about how much she’d be welcomed into the fold by executives who had aggressively recruited her.

They blame the same NBC brass for botching the situation by not having her meet with top network talent ahead of the rollout, then caving to internal pressure from liberal-leaning hosts.

As previously reported, MSNBC President Rashida Jones was among those who did an about-face after blessing the initial contract agreement with McDaniel. But Conde — Jones' boss and NBC's top news executive — also engaged in a significant U-turn, the McDaniel confidant said, having reached out to her last week after the ink was dry to welcome her into the NBC family with a message that said he was excited to work with her and that her perspective would be valuable to the network’s viewers. (NBC declined to comment.)

McDaniel’s camp is also particularly peeved at “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker, who said at the top of Sunday’s broadcast that her interview was “scheduled weeks before it was announced that McDaniel had become a paid NBC News contributor,” and declared, “I was not involved in her hiring.”

The person close to McDaniel said those words were misleading, at best. Playbook reviewed text messages from Carrie Budoff Brown, senior vice president of politics for NBC News, showing that she and Welker met with McDaniel in mid-February — a few days after Budoff Brown initially reached out to McDaniel’s team to gauge her interest in joining as a paid contributor.

A potential NBC contract was mentioned in what was otherwise mostly a get-to-know-you, off-the-record chat between McDaniel and Welker that day, the McDaniel confidant said.

An NBC insider familiar with the situation strongly disputed the suggestion that Welker was part of any contract discussions, arguing that “the meeting was set up to discuss the potential first interview” and “not about any potential contract.”

“Kristen was not part of those talks,” said the insider. “She was fenced off and insulated from discussions about a potential contributor agreement.”

Even after the backlash went public Sunday, when NBC’s Chuck Todd publicly teed off on network execs for the arrangement, McDaniel heard directly from Budoff Brown and Rebecca Blumenstein, NBC News’ president of editorial, that they’d have her back and the controversy would pass, according to the McDaniel ally.

The NBC insider said their comments were more along the lines of “stand firm.”

But yesterday, as the fallout mounted, McDaniel heard nothing further from top NBC brass about getting the boot — even as Conde announced her firing in a note to employees that included a personal apology to employees and a mention of “our deep commitment to presenting our audiences with a widely diverse set of viewpoints and experiences.”

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