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Getty Fox News considers how to replace Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly’s decision to jump to NBC, which serves as a capstone of sorts to what was -- by far -- the most tumultuous year in the history of Fox News, leaves the network scrambling to figure out what to do its primetime lineup, the highest rated on cable news.

In a statement confirming her departure, Rupert Murdoch was positive, if succinct.

“We thank Megyn Kelly for her 12 years of contributions to Fox News. We hope she enjoys tremendous success in her career and wish her and her family all the best.”

Fox agreed to let Kelly anchor her program for the remainder of the week, scheduling her last show for Jan. 6. Greta Van Susteren, who left last year, by contrast, was out at the channel the same day she gave notice to network executives.

Now, Fox News needs to chart its course in primetime. Sean Hannity's ratings are on the rise at 10 p.m. — following the election of his friend, President-elect Donald Trump — while 8 p.m. host Bill O’Reilly is still debating whether he stays, or follows Kelly out the door when his contract is up this summer.

Despite the turmoil of the past year and the rotating cast of hosts, Fox’s ratings appear unaffected. If anything, Trump's election has given them a jolt. Tucker Carlson, who ultimately succeeded Van Susteren at 7 p.m. (Brit Hume filled in as guest host in the immediate aftermath of her departure), has not only kept her audience, but improved on those numbers. And Hannity has done well in recent months, serving as arguably the most Trump-friendly show on TV.

The big question now for Fox News is whether it is still worth having a news program like Kelly's in primetime, or whether it should go all in on conservative opinion. For years, Fox has had at least one news show in primetime (in the mode of Kelly's and Van Susteren’s) even if their formats allowed for more opinion than many traditional newscasts. If the network chooses to continue that strategy, an internal hire like "America Newsroom" anchor Martha MacCallum or Fox Business Network anchor Trish Regan, both of whom have experience on larger stages as debate co-moderators, may fit the bill.

Another option floated by some insiders is a tag-team approach, drawing on Eric Bolling and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the co-hosts of the network's popular 5 p.m. show "The Five." Both, like Van Susteren and Kelly, have chops outside of the media world; Guilfoyle as a lawyer and Bolling as a commodities trader. They also have the inside track on the Trump administration, as both have had conversations about potentially joining the White House (Guilfoyle in a communications role and Bolling as a potential commerce secretary). And a co-hosted show in primetime would not be new for Fox, which previously had a duo anchoring a 9 p.m. show with "Hannity & Colmes," which lasted 12 years.

"I have to think that the people at Fox have been playing out various scenarios of this for a long time. They're crazy if they're not," said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. "They had to have seen that this was a very real possibility."

Investors are unlikely to be particularly alarmed, said Brian Wieser, a senior analyst at Pivotal research group, since the possibility of Kelly's departure was well known and she won't be competing against whomever ends up in her old time slot. Wieser said a bigger concern to the network would have been losing hosts in the wake of former chairman Roger Ailes' departure.

"The real risk was that the on air talent would get on proverbial high horses and leave the network in some sort of solidarity, that obviously didn’t happen," Wieser said.

But the question of which direction Fox may go still stands and whether or not Trump's election changes the calculation.

"We're at the stage where the art of balancing the audience demographics matters more than the politics," Wieser said, noting the importance of advertiser revenue and how the average age of a Fox viewer skews slightly older. "Reality is demography."

Additional reporting by Kelsey Sutton