Who will be in Maddow’s usual spot during the four nights that Maddow is working on other things? MSNBC says there will be a rotating series of hosts and there are no immediate plans for a single replacement host on those nights. The details outline one of the best contract situations in cable news history: big money, flexibility and carte blanche to do more than just respond to the news cycle. When Maddow isn’t hosting her show, she’ll be working on bigger projects, including the film adaptation of hers.”Bag Man” podcast and book with Michael Yarvitz on the corruption of former Vice President Spiro Agnew.
The arrangement caps the 13-year run of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” which the host made the beating heart of MSNBC’s primetime lineup. Her show finished fourth in 2021 in the cable news field, facing many, but not all, offers from Fox News. MSNBC’s “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell was eighth, a showing helped by Maddow’s initial audience.
MSNBC’s desperation to hang on to Maddow’s audience is reflected in their impromptu 9 pm fix. Basically, the network has set up an adult-only table for Maddow on Monday nights and a kids’ table for the rest of the week. What’s more, he’ll dive in whenever the news is hot: “Now for the big news events, for things like the run-up to the election, of course I’ll be here more than that,” Maddow said Monday upon his return. of the hiatus
We suggest a side project for your new time slot: As this blog reported, Maddow aired gullible segments about the Steele dossier, but refused to review them after the document went to pieces. Maybe that would be a good side project now that Maddow has more free time.
As for MSNBC, the timesharing setup marks an acknowledgment that the network failed to develop a successor to Maddow. That’s not a strong condemnation: Maddow’s approach to cable news broadcasting is singular, involving a distinct preference for lengthy opening monologues and an aversion to panel discussions. Mold breakers of that order do not populate newsrooms.
Fox News, by contrast, owes its ratings dominance to the cultural-political affinity millions of Americans feel for the network’s mission and disciplined messaging. This dynamic explains why Fox News has traditionally had so little trouble replacing popular hosts like Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly: There’s always another anchor willing to read the network’s script.
Try as they might, non-Fox News cable networks have been unable to replicate this franchise-spanning connection with a large audience. Maddow has stood quite alone as a challenger to Fox News supremacy, and his absence during the recent hiatus resulted in a sharp drop in MSNBC’s ratings for his hour. That’s a drop that MSNBC looks poised to deliver on every week for the foreseeable future.
The thinking, therefore, seems to be this: It’s better to have Maddow one night a week than no nights a week.
Reference-www.washingtonpost.com