Breaking! Maddow Gets Her MSNBC Show Starting September 8
Finally! I've only been saying this should happen for a couple years now. Just click on this link and you can see how far ahead of the curve I have been on this.
The addition of Ms. Maddow as prime-time host had been expected for some time. Only a month ago, Mr. Griffin said she was at the top of the list to get a show at the network, and would likely get one soon.
MSNBC has put heavy emphasis this year on presidential election coverage (it has given itself the tag line, “The Place for Politics”) and has turned to Ms. Maddow frequently both as a guest and as a substitute for the network’s most popular host, Keith Olbermann. Mr. Olbermann’s emergence as the signature personality on the network has led to an unofficial rebranding of MSNBC as the liberal alternative to Fox News, which is dominated by conservative hosts like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.
MSNBC has been known to be seeking a way to capitalize to a greater degree on Mr. Olbermann’s popularity. A program hosted by Ms. Maddow will almost certainly be a closer ideological fit with Mr. Olbermann’s.
And Rachel comments to the Times:
“This is great; getting a regular cable show is something I’ve wanted,” Ms. Maddow said. She acknowledged that the intensity of the presidential race meant that will remain the focus through the election and probably for the first 100 days of a new administration.
But she said she would likely reshape the show as more of a general news program after “this political Christmas” has come to an end. That is the kind of show she does on Air America, and she will continue that show after she joins MSNBC, she said.
As for being branded another partisan voice from the left, Ms. Maddow said she was no more partisan than any other host in cable. “I am who I am,” she said. She dismissed the expected criticism from the right, saying, “Everybody likes to work the refs to make their own kind of political hay.”
