Rachel Maddow’s return to her MSNBC show brought with her a ratings boost — drawing more than 2 million total viewers on Monday after months of lackluster viewership in her absence.
The ratings showed a bump over recent weeks, when they’d fallen below 2 million since Maddow took leave in February to work on other projects, including a movie version of her “Bag Man” podcast and a book. The prior Monday, for instance, the show drew just 1.6 million viewers.
On Monday, Maddow announced she’ll soon be going to a weekly schedule. Starting May 2, “The Rachel Maddow Show” will be weekly on Monday nights.
Even with the 2.1 million viewers she brought with her return to her left-leaning show, Maddow still trailed Fox News’s Sean Hannity, according to Nielsen figures. Hannity also airs in the 9 p.m. Eastern slot.
His show, “Hannity” reeled in just over 2.7 million total viewers. “CNN Tonight” came in third at the time slot with just 690,000 viewers.
Maddow came in as the 7th most-watched show on Monday, with Fox sweeping the top six spots.
Meanwhile Fox News reports MSNBC’s cash cow, who reportedly earns $30 million annually, told viewers this week she would only host "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Monday nights beginning next month despite her massive salary. The other four nights of the week will go to a rotating cast of fill-in hosts.
Maddow’s announcement left fans disappointed and forced media critics to admit MSNBC has a "problem" on its hands.
"MSNBC may find people to succeed Rachel Maddow, but it’s not clear yet that the network can replace her," Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote.
NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde, who started the gig in May 2020, is the high-powered executive who paid Maddow and oversees NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC. He was previously chairman of Telemundo and was widely expected to add stability to the NBCUniversal’s news assets after predecessor Andy Lack was caught up in a laundry list of controversies, including a public feud with Ronan Farrow over the network’s handling of his Harvey Weinstein reporting.
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