We all know MSNBC is insufferable. It’s the left-wing counterpart of Fox News, but with vastly inferior ratings. It has offered folks like Brian Williams a life jacket after he was forced out of his primetime gig for falsifying past stories, but the network will undoubtedly be hit if one of their marquee hosts decides to leave. Rachel Maddow’s contract is up, and reports are that contract negotiations are not going well. Maddow is one of the few liberal hosts, if any, to outdo Fox News’ Sean Hannity in the 9 PM slot. This is a rare occurrence. For years, we’ve joked about how Red Eye used to get better ratings than most of MSNBC’s daytime programming when it was hosted by Greg Gutfeld, and that show used to air at 3 AM.
Maddow has long hinted that she wants to dial back. There is no one who appears to be able to fill that slot. It would be a massive gap in the roster. Maybe they would reshuffle and place Nicole Wallace there to torture us all. I don’t know (via The Blaze):
The Daily Beast report said six sources confirmed to them that Maddow was seeking media alternatives to continuing as the flagship host to the left-wing alternative to Fox News. She has hinted to her viewers that she has been tiring of running a daily show and has said in the past she wants to spend more time with her family.
"I'm realizing now — 10, 11 years into this — that it's fine to work long days," said Maddow in a 2019 interview with the New York Times. "But it's not good for you to work incessant long days, five days a week, 50 weeks a year for 10 years."
The report says she is also considering other projects in the "streaming and podcasting space."
Mark Shapiro, the president of Endeavor, the talent agency that represents Maddow, said only that the negotiations with MSNBC are ongoing.
Not really dwelling on this, but a liberal network that could lose strength is worth watching on the periphery.
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