“No one is missing her anymore,” one Fox News insider told me recently. This person was referring, of course, to Megyn Kelly, the network’s former star who left for NBC earlier this year. Kelly’s move may have signaled a rightward lurch for NBC, which appears to be coming to terms with its place in our new Trumpian reality. (MSNBC also recently hired Kelly’s former colleague Greta Van Susteren.) But the move may be more significant for her former stomping ground, Fox News, which appears to be in the midst of its own regressive (if highly rated) culture change. During Kelly’s reign, “it was always all about Megyn,” one former Fox colleague told me. Now, it’s all about the Old White Men.

It’s worth recalling that it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Roger Ailes’s departure last summer in the wake of a tawdry sexual-harassment scandal seemed to herald a new era inside the Fox News bunker. At the time, Rupert Murdoch’s heirs, 21st Century Fox C.E.O. James and Chairman Lachlan, were eager to embrace a more transparent and evolved future. Soon after Gretchen Carlson waged her accusations of sexual harassment, the sons launched an internal investigation to be handled by the law firm Paul, Weiss. After Ailes left, 21st Century Fox paid Carlson a $20 million settlement and offered her an unusual apology that appeared to herald a post-loofah, post-leg-cam era. “We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve,” the statement noted. (Ailes has repeatedly and vociferously denied all allegations.)

But perhaps the most important element in the younger Murdochs’ agenda was retaining Kelly, Fox’s second-most highly rated anchor, who alleged that she, too, had been a victim of Ailes’s harassment. Kelly, after all, became the journalistic breakout star of the 2016 presidential campaign. And with a presumptive Hillary Clinton presidency, and a younger generation of Murdochs in charge, Kelly appeared to be an avatar of an enlightened, post-Ailes culture at Fox News. The younger Murdochs tabled a huge $25 million a year offer and asked Kelly to make a decision quickly.

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Kelly, however, had other ideas. At the time, she was preparing to promote her book, Settle for More, in which she portrayed herself as something of a feminist hero through her spats with Trump, her alleged sexual harassment by Ailes, as well as other stories from her childhood and career. Kelly also seemed to engage in battles with her male colleagues Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Meanwhile, she appeared on Dr. Phil, Live with Kelly, and on CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS This Morning—the last of which ended with co-host Gayle King asking her, “And you plan to leave Fox when?” (Ailes’s lawyer Susan Estrich denied the claims in Kelly’s book to The Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple.)

Kelly’s attempt to elevate herself might have worked at another news network. But Fox News prides itself on having a strong formula (leggy young women and angry old men) that diminishes the need, and appetite, for strong personalities. Inside the Fox News bunker, jealous colleagues took to calling Kelly “Me-Again.” Rival Bill O’Reilly indicated that Kelly was making his network “look bad.” Before too long, Fox News seemed like a much less hospitable place for the Valkyrie Kelly. Meanwhile, the stunning election of Trump appeared to throw a wrench in the younger Murdochs’ plan for sun and light. Perhaps a younger, more progressive attitude wasn’t the right idea, after all.