Megyn Kelly invited her harshest critic onto her show and it was incredibly awkward

Megyn Kelly TODAY

• Megyn Kelly invited one of her sharpest critics, a Jezebel writer, to her Friday morning NBC show.
• Kelly hailed the writer, Bobby Finger, as a "rockstar" as the two hugged awkwardly on live TV.

One of NBC host Megyn Kelly's sharpest critics, Jezebel's Bobby Finger, was invited to attend Kelly's morning show, "Megyn Kelly Today," on Friday and hailed by Kelly as the two hugged awkwardly during a live segment.

With headlines like, "Megyn Kelly Today, Today: Not Even Goldie Hawn Could Save This One From Being Dull" and "Megyn Kelly Today, Today: Why Is Kevin O'Leary Here Talking About Sexual Harassment?," Finger has closely documented the new show in his humorous daily blog, "Megyn Kelly Today, Today."

After Kelly personally invited Finger to attend the show, she announced his presence to the audience, saying his commentary "hasn't always been kind," but has become required reading for her and her staff.

"My staff and I have become obsessed with this man," Kelly said, calling Finger a "rockstar." "His opinion and approval has come to mean a lot to us, but we don't have it."

Kelly's move from primetime political coverage on Fox News to daytime TV has found many harsh critics, who have panned the first weeks of her show. Awkward clips of her segments have gone viral repeatedly, and her ratings have remained relatively low.

Kelly found Finger in the audience and gave him a hug.

Finger, who promised to maintain the daily blog "until we are no longer able to watch Megyn Kelly Today without feeling like there will be no tomorrow," wrote about his experience attending the show on Friday in what he said would be his last blog post. 

"10 minutes into Megyn Kelly Today's Facebook Live segment, Megyn Kelly said there was a 'special guest in the audience,'" Finger wrote. "Megyn Kelly said the name 'Bobby Finger' aloud. Bobby Finger wanted to scream but couldn't because he was in the audience of Megyn Kelly Today."

But the Jezebel writer didn't miss his last opportunity to lay into Kelly, a former conservative commentator and Fox News host.  

"Bobby Finger remembered that Megyn Kelly spent 13 years at a network whose mission is to embolden an audience filled with hate, elect Republicans to office, and to provide a platform for racism, bigotry, misogyny, and misinformation," he wrote on Friday. "Bobby Finger remembered when Megyn Kelly railed against the Black Lives Matter movement and called it potentially 'dangerous [for the black] community.' Bobby Finger remembered when Megyn Kelly insulted Planned Parenthood and claimed they lacked 'humanity' while giving airtime to those altered videos made by anti-abortion activists. Bobby Finger remembered when Megyn Kelly gave homophobes a place to amplify their voices." 

Still, Finger gave Kelly credit for inviting him to the show and leaving her career in conservative media behind. 

"During an additional Q&A segment off-camera, Megyn Kelly expressed her desire to 'lift people up' with Megyn Kelly Today," he wrote, wondering if the new show was a "self-imposed, high-paying penance for spending 13 years spreading the gospel" of Fox's ultra-conservative former chief Roger Ailes. "Bobby Finger believed her."

This story was originally published by Jezebel.