After an extended period of pedestrian ratings, Ms. Kelly and Mr. Lack had a discussion this month on the possible winding down of her portion of the “Today” show by the end of the year, according to two people briefed on the conversation.

In addition to her apology, Ms. Kelly devoted part of her Wednesday episode to a discussion with the PBS host Amy Holmes and the journalist Roland Martin on the history of blackface. Partly because of her efforts to make up for her statements, Ms. Kelly believes that NBC executives have been using the “blackface” backlash as a pretext to oust her from the network, according to a person familiar with her thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal sensitive discussions.

In an odd twist, Mr. Freedman, Ms. Kelly’s recently hired lawyer, made a request to NBC asking that Ronan Farrow — a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has said NBC impeded his reporting on the Harvey Weinstein story last year — join the meeting where they plan to negotiate Ms. Kelly’s future, the person said.

Ms. Kelly’s incendiary remarks on Tuesday were part of a round-table discussion of how “the costume police are cracking down” on Halloween costumes, as she put it.

“What is racist?” Ms. Kelly asked. “You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was O.K., as long as you were dressing up as a character.”

She went on to cite the example of Luann de Lesseps, a member of the cast of the Bravo reality show “The Real Housewives of New York,” who came under fire this year for dressing up as Diana Ross, complete with an outsize Afro wig. Ms. Kelly added that she found the criticism of the “Housewives” star perplexing.

In doing so, she displayed little awareness that blackface minstrelsy, a popular form of entertainment in the 1800s that later seeped into Hollywood productions, promoted a racist caricature and presented a distorted view of slavery. Malik Russell, a spokesman for the N.A.A.C.P., issued a statement about her comments: “Maybe in Megyn Kelly’s world, offensive acts and racism are O.K., but I assure you for individuals of color, blackface is always racist and never O.K.”