NBC must realize by now that it made a huge mistake in giving Megyn Kelly a three-year contract reportedly worth $69 million.

The deal made Kelly the second highest-paid NBC employee behind Matt Lauer — who earns $25 million annually. In year one of Kelly’s contract, however, the left-wing media giant does not seem to be getting a positive return on its massive investment.

Page Six reported that ratings for the third hour of “The Today Show,” which Kelly now hosts in the morning, are down 32 percent from last year at this time, and that Kelly’s failures on her segment, “Megyn Kelly Today,” are having a negative impact on her co-workers.

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Viewers are tuning out for Kelly’s segment — and are not tuning back in. Since viewers do not want to watch Kelly, the fourth hour of the program with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb is down 26 percent from last year, according to the same Page Six report.

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New York Times media reporter John Koblin also reiterated recently that Kelly’s presence has led to declining ratings.

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There are many reasons Kelly’s presence is having a negative impact on NBC’s ratings. For starters, she faced long odds to succeed at a liberal station after coming over from the Fox News Channel.

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Kelly’s first week on “The Today Show” was especially disastrous. She managed to irk two of her celebrity guests. A recent Variety report noted that celeb publicists apparently do not want their clients making appearances on Kelly’s program.

First, there was “Will and Grace” star Debra Messing, who revealed in an Instagram comment that she regretted appearing on a segment with Megyn Kelly.

“Honestly I didn’t know it was MK [Megyn Kelly] until that morning,” Messing wrote. “The itinerary just said ‘Today Show’ appearance. Regret going on. Dismayed by her comments.”

Two days later, Kelly upset 79-year-old actress Jane Fonda by asking her about the plastic surgery she’d had done over the years. Fonda looked stunned as she digested the question, then said with some dismay, “We really want to talk about that now?” Fonda had come onto the show with Robert Redford to promote their new Netflix film, “Our Souls at Night” — not to discuss her physical appearance.

Finally, one day later, Kelly’s cameraman accidentally stepped into a shot — and then swore on live TV while Kelly was conducting an interview.

Online, the reactions to Kelly’s new program have not been positive.

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Kelly was moved onto “The Today Show” after her initial series on the network, “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly,” tanked in the ratings and was embroiled in controversy.

NBC thought it could make Kelly one of its biggest star — likely because she sparred with then-Republican presidential primary candidate Donald Trump as a moderator in 2015. She used that position to get attention to propel her own personal brand. In that, she was effective as she departed Fox for more money — but the failures of the Kelly programs leave NBC with some serious dead weight on its roster.

Luckily for her new network, there are only about 2.5 years left on Kelly’s contract. Maybe within that time, the network will find a spot in which she is less detrimental to the programming.