paid out anyway? I assumed that was the main reason she hadn't popped up on a rival network yet, that like Groh when he went to GT for example, for every dollar she got doing so, it would have to go back to NBC.

I think if she could get the audience, Fox would welcome her with open arms. Her "anti-Trump" image (I didn't think she was anti-Trump BTW) would've already turned away viewers back then, as that all went down before she left Fox (I don't recall much anti-Trumping going on when she was at NBC, or at least nothing more than she was at Fox). And I would imagine the extremes like OAN or Newsmax (imagine, because I don't watch to know) would roll out the red carpet even if she only brought a fraction of her former audience.

She was never really suited for a format like the Today Show IMHO. But I could see her doing more in depth investigative pieces, not unlike what Sharyl Atkisson does for Sinclair, but longer, or a Dateline type format, which is apparently what she wanted to do more of anyway. NBC just couldn't seem to find a way to make that pay her enormous bill, I guess.