Depending on how it all shakes out, viewers might end up seeing more of Maddow than they think. MNSBC's Rachel Maddow reveals real reason her show is now on once a week as fans slam host for 'quietly quitting' Chris Bradford Published: 7:38 ET, Apr 12 2022 Updated: 11:29 ET, Apr 12 2022 PRESENTER Rachel Maddow will only host her show once a week from May following her two-month hiatus. Market data provided by Factset. Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC | Watch Rachel Maddow Live MONDAYS 9PM ET MADDOWBLOG FULL EPISODES PODCASTS MSNBC STORE Latest Maddow Videos Officials look to establish baseline health. Im still working! Then in 2016, MSNBC scrapped a weekend show Wagner was set to launch after the network previously announced the program. October 2, 2019. (Someone described it to me as being like a bunch of people holed up studying for finals every night, like in a library, panic researching.) Throughout the years, Maddow has usually written the A-block monologue herself, on the heels of a full days worth of research. NBC selected Wagner, a former MSNBC host, to replace Maddow with a new programs 9 p.m. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. It doesnt mean this is easy or idyllic, but its different, and thats what I needed. Rachel Maddow. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Rachel Maddow returned from an extended hiatus on Monday, but her return to nightly hosting will be . Fourth Watch editor Steve Krakauer, a former CNN producer who now covers the media industry, feels the "bizarre arrangement" is not going to solve the networks ratings issues. I suggested that Maddows coverage may have given viewers a false sense of hope that Trump was about to get taken down, not unlike how, say, viewers of Newsmax may have been led to believe that the 2020 election was about to be overturned. Maddow was willing to hear them out because her beloved longtime agent, Jean Sage of the much smaller Napoli Management Group, had signaled her intention to retire. Latest Media & Entertainment News and Updates. Starting at some point in 2022, shed get to do a lot less gabbing about the news cycle and a lot more premium long-form projects: podcasts, specials, documentaries, film adaptations, etc. Thats whats going on with the dossier., The property where Maddow and Mikula live spans 12 acres of woods and streams, lots of room for their two black Labs, Francis and Charms, to run free. Jeff Zucker, president of CNN at the time, toyed with the idea of hiring Maddow for the networks ill-fated streaming service, CNN+. She finally revealed a single federal payment from two pages of Trumps 2005 return, obtained by her guest that evening, the journalist David Cay Johnston. The journalist has received several Emmy Awards for her broadcasting. 1 Rachel Maddow has been MSNBC's most high-profile. Thats where cable news is. Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: Mar. ET primetime weeknight slot has been mired in a ratings slump. As for Rachel Maddow herself? Maddow has signed a new multi-year deal with MSNBC's parent NBCUniversal, as Insider's. NBCUniversal will reportedly give Maddow $30million a year to keep her with the company through to the 2024 election, according to the Daily Beast. Rachel's Twitter: http://twitter.com/maddow Show video: http://Rachel.msnbc.com TRMS blog: http . God and country, thank you very much., Maddows highly rated 9 p.m. showlong the crown jewel of MSNBC prime time, if not the entire networkdebuted on September 8, 2008, with a handoff from then superstar Keith Olbermann, whose subsequent defenestration elevated Maddow to queen bee status. Before long, news broke that Maddow, after months of discussions quarterbacked by her superagents at Endeavor, would be sticking with NBCUniversal after all. The Rachel Maddow Show would eventually go weekly and she would continue to do specials for the network, but she would have a lot more flexibility. Previously, a panel-style show airing at 12 noon ET, its set-up was changed and moved to 4 p.m. in 2014, following the resignation of host Martin Bashir for his vitriolic remarks about Sarah Palin. The only reason youll ever need this is if you fall through the ice, said Rachel Maddow, standing beside her pickup truck at an empty boat launch on a cloudy winters day. Fox News Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report. Over the next few months, we would talk a lot about what was at stakefor her health and well-being and career trajectory, for her continued cultural relevance, and for the network that has long depended on her massive nightly audience. Shed secured a new multiyear contract to pursue projects in a wide range of formats, from documentaries and streaming specials to movies and books, all under the banner of her newly minted independent production company whose name I can now reveal: Surprise Inside. Im just glad shes staying in any capacity, says Reid. The fact that it didnt last long, Maddow told me of the informal ban, when I paid a second visit to her neck of the woods, and they just quietly changed their minds without ever saying why they changed their minds was, to me, sort of just sad on their part, and telling., It was three months after our ice fishing trip, and I was back in Western Mass, this time sitting with Maddow on her screened-in porch, eating sandwiches on a rainy spring day. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. But just in case., It was a Monday in early February, on Maddows home turf of Western Massachusetts. And he was willing to talk to me about what I was doing well, and doing poorly, to help me get better.. MSNBC finished the second quarter of 2022 with its smallest audience among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54 since 2003. PRESENTER Rachel Maddow will only host her show once a week from May following her two-month hiatus. MSNBC, CNN FACE GAPING HOLES IN PRIMETIME AFTER RACHEL MADDOW, CHRIS CUOMO SAGAS LEAVE 9 PM TIME SLOT UNSTABLE. Carlson spoke admiringly of her in a 2019 New York Times Magazine profile, and when his name came up as we fished, Maddow recalled bumping into him at an event for the first time in a long time. Story tips can be sent tobrian.flood@fox.comand on Twitter: @briansflood. (They keep an apartment in Manhattan.) This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Clear search After Rachel Maddow signed a new multi-year deal with MSNBC and NBCUniversal, there were reports that she ultimately will scale back her schedule to as little as once-a-week. A stark admission to avoid culpability took place. Theres 20 inches of ice out here, youre not gonna fall through, Maddow promised. Legal Statement. Then, on a whim, she won a contest to host a local radio show. ET program on Monday evenings after scaling back her workload. But for me, success is doing work that Im proud of. During Maddows absence, her show averaged 1.6 million viewers compared to 3.1 million for Fox News "Hannity," which airs in the same 9 p.m. Jones noted that Wagner is a left-leaning individual on many issues, but also said that viewers wont merely receive preprogrammed Democratic talking points when they tune in to her show. "Now" averaged only 384,000 total viewers and a mere 55,000 among the demo in its final month to trail Fox News at 4 p.m. The program, known as much for its historical wonkery and sweeping monologues as its lefty bona fides, was immediately successful. But it also proved to be a massive slog. Brad Adgate, an industry analyst, told the Post that a challenge will be getting viewers to feel the urgency to watch Wagners show that they felt for watching Maddow. It has sort of been like Chronicle of a Death Foretold the whole time Ive been doing cable news, she told me. Then Jimmy Horowitz, who oversees global dealmaking for NBCUniversals film and television portfolio, negotiated the salary. She returned to host MSNBCs The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday and revealed she'll go to a weekly schedule starting next month. Bye! Maddow is one of the highest-paid news anchors on television, earning $7million annually as a news anchor at MSNBC, according toThe Street. (Sirius had no comment.) The news comes after a several-month absence. This help content & information General Help Center experience. Intrigue began swirling last summer with leaks that Maddow was thinking about leaving the network for new opportunities. She needed a place to hunker down and finish her dissertation without any distractions, and she knew someone who had a spare room in a former B&B. The Rachel Maddow Show airs Mondays at 9pm ET on MSNBC, and shortly thereafter in this feed. Though The Rachel Maddow Show is still around, the news series exists in a far different position than it once did. The industry chatter is that NBCUniversal gave Maddow an enormous raise only to cede her in the key prime-time block that remains incredibly vital to ratings, advertisers, and cable subscriptions. In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Rachel Maddow recently discussed some details of her contract with NBC, which reportedly allows her a lot more wiggle room to pursue new ventures with the network. The seventh season of "The Circus" averaged only 183,000 total viewers and 52,000 among the demo to finish well behind other Showtime programs such as "Billions" and "First Lady." The critical takes of her Russiagate coverage didnt just come from Maddows tormentors on the right. All ratings data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Maddow has won numerous Emmy Awards for her broadcasting career. She said: One of the things I realized to my surprise is that I actually dont need another hiatus.. A court decision came in with a pure document-dump timing this past weekend. When Maddow first came to Western Massachusetts in September 1998, it was almost a fluke. Thats how it works in retrospect, she countered, but in the moment, its much harder to see. So the existential question is not Rachel Maddow. The new lineup for MSNBC will keep Maddow hosting her show on Monday nights. Im gonna be here every night working for the next few weeks or so. I reframed the question: What does she want her legacy to be? The journalist, who joined MSNBC in 2008, will continue hosting the current affairs program from Monday-Thursday throughout the rest of April. Wagner rejoined MSNBC this past February as a senior analyst and substitute anchor, which positioned her for the elevation to 9 p.m. To say shes got a tall order would be an understatement, but MSNBC president Rashida Jones doesnt see it that way. But she might lose her show after saying something disgusting. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. While Rachel Maddow is "legally restrained" from divulging her contract in full, having a new production company under her belt paves the way for all sorts of different projects she's working on. Wagners debut as the official new host during Maddows old time slot took place on Tuesday, Aug. 16. All Rights Reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Trying to turn the Russia scandal into the dossier, or trying to turn the dossier into the Russia scandal, is a revisionist history designed to intimidate people out of covering stories like that in the future, she said, and to try to obscure the seriousness of what Russia did, and what the Trump campaigns relationship was with what Russia did.. MSNBC 's star primetime host is making it official: She is cutting back on her hosting hours. This was back in 2008, when Griffin gave Maddow her own show. Shapiro started taking meetings all over town, a couple of which Maddow joined. For the lawsuit to go forward, OANN would had to have shown that Maddow's show stated facts rather than opinions. Shes been doing the job long enough that it supremely messed up her back, which now has seven herniated or bulging discs that she manages with physical therapy. And on Monday, out on the lake, as we drilled small holes and fiddled with our tip-up traps and Vexilar transducersits a more high-tech sport than youd thinkit occurred to Maddow that this was the first Monday in 13 years that she wasnt about to be live on air five nights a week, with no end in sight. Now lets never speak of this again.. This is gonna be a disappointing answer, she says. That was super scary, she told me, but it resolved, and I started doing a new kind of physical therapy that ended up being really effective. She said the new work routine has been a significant life improvement. For me, she said, more than the issue of, you know, how dangerous are Tuckers ideas, and how do they interact with the growth of the authoritarian right in the Republican Party, more so than that question, which is obviously what the central thrust of the reporting was about, I was interested in how they deconstructed why it works., Rather than engaging on Carlsons politics, Maddow talks about him and other cable news rivals as fellow practitioners. I am going to go on hiatus for a little bit, she said, broadcasting on a laptop from home as opposed to her nearby studio because shed just had a COVID-19 exposure. She hosted the daytime program Now for four years concluding in 2015. Once the deal was a fait accompli, Maddows colleagues breathed a sigh of relief. And the whole thing became a Dan Rather scandal. We talked about pretty much everythingher spirituality and Catholic upbringing (I one hundred percent believe in the power of prayer), her history of depression (very much a chemical and biological process, which she manages with exercise and sleep), her media diet (no physical publications or, no joke, cable news; lots of digital subscriptions and The Great British Baking Show). Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. Fox also noted that Wagner has been canceled by MSNBC in the past. It justit neutralized it. The early days of her MSNBC program featured amiable debates with Pat Buchanan. It was really nice to see him, she said. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. None of the replacements resonated with viewers, prompting media insiders to take notice of MSNBCs alarmingly shallow bench. Maddow hosted her weekly show "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC. MSNBCs Rachel Maddow only hosts the networks 9 p.m. A few months later, I asked Maddow what she thought of the Times recent series that unpacked how Fox News Channels number one host weaponizes his viewers fears and grievances to create what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news. What Maddow found most interesting about the series, she told me, was an interactive analyzing Carlsons rhetoric from 1,150 episodes of Tucker Carlson Tonight. The popular political commentator had been absent from her show since February as she went on sabbatical to work with NBCUniversal on new projects. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. As of now, she is in the U.S immersed in her book-based movie and some podcast projects. It is an old and stupid and dangerous idea. At this point in our conversation, Maddow did something very Maddow, reaching back into the past to make a point about the present. ITS MSNBC. There was a document that was involved. As for Rachel Maddow herself? It lost a staggering 40% of its viewers compared to the last week that Maddow actually hosted it. It justthis turned out to be his moment., During Donald Trumps presidency, when Maddow became a bellowing soothsayer for the anti-Trump resistance, her monologues delved into the spy-novel-worthy esoterica of the Russian-collusion saga and the Christopher Steele dossier, the credibility of which took a hit last year when one of Steeles main sources was indicted on a charge of lying to the FBI. Maddow would conceive the projects and NBC would get first right of refusal. At the time, MSNBC claimed Wagner's show was among those cut as part of a programming reshuffling in order to shift daytime towards straight news but the programs ratings were not exactly desirable. One source called the idea of Jeff Zucker making a bid for the network beyond fantasy., How Newsmaxs Cable-Fee Fight Spiraled Into the Rights Latest Censorship Crusade. "The Rachel Maddow Show" is on pace for its smallest weekly audience since 2016, according to Nielsen Media Research ratings. Vanity Fair writes that Rachel's contract allows her to "pursue projects in a wide range of formats, from documentaries and streaming specials to movies and books.". This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Fans of the MSNBC nightly news-focused show hosted by Rachel Maddow have had to adjust since she left the five-day-a-week format in May. So the existential question is not Rachel Maddow. It has long been so. For years, millions of people tuned in to The Rachel Maddow Show as nightly appointment viewing. In our very first show meeting, she said, I wanna do a 15- to 20-minute opening, recalls Griffin, whos now working with Maddow to build Surprise Inside. Before MSNBC, Rachel Maddow was an opinion host at the defunct Air America radio network, working with Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead. Story tips can be sent tobrian.flood@fox.comand on Twitter: @briansflood. I didnt end up doing much work.. If youre looking for a whiff of controversy around Maddows journalistic record, this would be it. Rachel Maddow's weeknight show is coming to an end next year, according to sources with knowledge of the new contract the MSNBC star has reached with parent company NBCUniversal. She was friendly with Roger Ailes, who blurbed one of her books. But does she have any projects in the works? They talked to Spotify, Showtime, CNN. The story begins about two years prior, when Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel and president Mark Shapiro began actively pursuing her. Wagner is also known for her role on Showtimes political documentary series, "The Circus," but that has not been a ratings draw, either. Its MSNBC., Maddows view of the industry is less fatalistic, if a bit jaded. It was a "dealbreaker" for Maddow to have a schedule allowing more time for family, according to three people involved with the deal. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Is it the number of streams? But as for what she's working on right now, she seems content enough to take a break in the wilderness and fish for the most part, if Vanity Fair is any indication. Maddow had been absent from her show since February but doesn't think she will go on another hiatus. Maddow is exceptionally hands-on, and the opening of each showthe A-block, in cable news parlancerequires an intensive level of preparation on a tight deadline. The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC News 4.4 31.2K Ratings; SPECIAL TO THIS FEED: The January 6th hearings and corresponding analysis from Rachel Maddow and other MSNBC panelists beginning Thursday . The anchor is expected to be off until April, leaving MSNBC with a hole in the coveted 9 p.m. weeknight time slot. In October, MSNBC president Rashida Jones said the network was in "no immediate rush" to find Maddow's successor. It may surprise people to hear Maddow speak so matter-of-factly about someone whose views are abhorrent to her. And thats not a fatalistic thing. The statements purported to describe Nunes's conduct . So its a challenge for us to produce for someone else.. As Maddow critic Erik Wemple observed on his Washington Post blog, Rachel Maddow can do whatever she pleases.. This, said Maddow, holding up our trophy, is a pickerel. Maddow explained that while she and her partner of 22 years,. She has at times eked out wins over rival Sean Hannity while keeping CNNs rotating cast of 9 p.m. hosts in third placeoften distantlyever since The Rachel Maddow Show started to regularly trounce Larry King Live more than a decade ago. By now it was mid-2021. (It was to Mikula, whod already had a frightening run-in with the disease in the fall of 2020.) MSNBCs Rachel Maddow only hosts the networks 9 p.m. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. She went to the hospital, where they determined she was having a rare, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. ET. The brass surmised that having Maddow, from a liberal network, and Chris Wallace, from conservative Fox News, would give the platform a certain range. Going from five days a week with Maddow to one day must feel like a bit of a bummer. I mean that was the basis of my professional friendship with Roger Ailes. She also specified that she hadnt yet signed the new contract when news outlets reported on it. "I'm going to. "It's potentially higher risk, higher reward, right?" Top-rated MSNBC host Rachel Maddow plans to return to her desk at the network on Monday after taking a month-long hiatus for a film project. We all felt that kind of pit-in-the-stomach panic. Ditto Chris Hayes: The fact that shes not leaving makes it feel less seismic. Legal Statement. Offers may be subject to change without notice. It's part of a new contract she signed with the network that will allow her time to work on other projects for MSNBC and NBC, including a film version of her award-winning podcast Bag Man, directed by Ben Stiller. Rachel Maddow returned from hiatus Monday night and told viewers of The Rachel Maddow Show that starting May 2 she would transition to hosting her show just once a week. "The Rachel Maddow Show" averaged 2.7 million viewers during the same dates in 2021 when MSNBCs cash cow was present and averaged 2 million nightly viewers during January 2022 before Maddow stepped aside. Maddows longtime executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, who will continue to shepherd her live MSNBC appearances, acknowledged, Its a challenging time. "@MTnutz @StarblastGA @gkrobinson10 Republicans never blamed Bernie Sanders and Rachel Maddow for James Hodgkinson traveling cross country to go shooting gallery at a softball field. It wasnt some sort of, like, hostile, heated negotiation with NBC, she said. "The widespread conventional wisdom among 30 Rock insiders and TV news veterans is that, when it comes to Maddow, MSNBC never had a bench.". We also got into a back-and-forth about her dossier segments. The show now only airs weekly on Monday evenings on MSNBC as opposed to the nightly time slot it once held throughout the week. The judge concluded that Maddow was far too silly to be taken as a credible news source. Rachel Maddow is still very much a public figure on MSNBC and she remains committed to current events and telling real stories. Maddow wouldnt comment on any of this (Im legally restrained from discussing the terms of my contract), other than to dispute the reported $30 million. They talked to Amazon. Other recent changes at MSNBC include the addition of a fourth hour of Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit . Its an American history, underappreciated story, said Maddow, that has resonance for all these things were dealing with todaythe threat of authoritarianism and the question of whether or not criminal law is the appropriate venue, and has the right constitutional powers, to handle those kinds of threats. Why did he get this coveted spot in this group that wasnt gonna be fighting? But right now, there were fish to catch. Are Brice and Elizabeth From '7 Little Johnstons' Still Together? The eleven people, speaking on the condition of anonymity with CNN , said the move is a "significant challenge" that will leave MSNBC looking for a new plan for the 9 . None of us could have ever guessed this trajectory., Local radio led to Air America, which led to regular appearances on MSNBC, which led to a political analyst gig, which led to substitute hosting for Countdown With Keith Olbermann, and, finally, just two months before Barack Obamas historic election, Maddows own hour as Olbermanns lead-in. According to data from MoffettNathanson, Maddows ratings share in 202111 percent of MSNBCs total ratingswas higher than that of any other solo host in all of cable. Search. Fans of the MSNBC nightly news-focused show hosted by Rachel Maddow have had to adjust since she left the five-day-a-week format in May. That doesnt happen if youre a success in cable news.". The Late Show with Stephen Colbert welcomed journalist extraordinaire Rachel Maddow to talk what she's been waiting years to talk about: the legit Trump impeachment. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, (The much-maligned segment, to be fair, was the spark that ignited a landmark New York Times investigation that did manage to unearth the mother lode of Trumps tax returns, as Times reporter Susanne Craig explained during an appearance on Maddows show the following year.). The Emmy awards recipient Rachel has won multiple awards for her broadcasting work, including a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her book Blowout (2019) in 2021. I think, writ large, if they ended up with, like, a hit award-winning podcast, and a hit movie, and a docuseries, and a serial TV show, and Im covering the State of the Union, and some of the time Im doing The Rachel Maddow Show, thats probably a better deal for them long-run than me just doing TRMS and killing myself and not being able to do anything and, ultimately, having a shorter career because Im burning myself out.