Today show ratings soar following firing of Megyn Kelly

Viewership for Kelly's former time slot is up by 10 per cent for a key demographic

The Today show's ratings have surged recently - ever since $69m signing Megyn Kelly was fired.

Viewership for her former time slot of 9am is up by 10 per cent for a key demographic – the one advertisers pay attention to, Variety reported, quoting Nielsen ratings.

Kelly was sacked by NBC on 26 October after making comments defending blackface.

Ratings appear to have started rising shortly after Kelly's exit.

The third hour of Today, which is now hosted by a rotating cast of anchors, experienced a five per cent audience increase in the first week following her firing, Variety noted.

Craig Melvin, Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, and Hoda Kotb have all appeared in the revamped time slot.

Today's third hour was watched by 2.63m people overall, topping the 2.52m viewers who tuned in for the last week of Megyn Kelly Today, according to Nielsen.

More specifically, Kelly's show had 675,000 viewers aged 25 to 54, compared to 741,000 for the same age category last week during the 9am slot.

Not only are audience numbers up for the show's third hour; Today is faring well overall, too.

Over the last three weeks, viewership for the first two hours of the show has topped that of Good Morning America, ABC's morning television rival to Today.

The former NBC anchor is believed to still be in the process of negotiating the terms of her exit with the network.

One of the main questions that arose following Kelly's firing was whether she would receive the full $69m payout attached to her three-year contract.

Kelly initially drew criticism after saying blackface was acceptable during her childhood, "as long as you were dressing as a character", in the context of a discussion about Halloween costumes.

She later apologised for her remarks. NBC ran re-runs of her show for two days before announcing the anchor wouldn't be returning.