In what must be considered an unwelcome twist for Megyn Kelly and the team haggling over her severance package from NBC News, ratings for the Today show’s third hour have measurably improved since she was summarily dropped from the program amid the “blackface” debacle.

This latest development is unlikely to enhance the former Fox News star’s negotiating leverage as her high-powered Hollywood attorney, Bryan Freedman, tries to persuade NBC’s upper management—including NBC News Chairman Andy Lack and his boss, NBC chief executive Stephen Burke—to maximize Kelly’s payout, midway through a three-year contract reportedly worth $69 million.

In other words, she might not be in a strong position to “Settle for More,” per the title of a recurring segment on Kelly’s defunct NBC show, based on various life lessons she presented in her 2016 memoir of the same name.