Rachel Maddow Rejected $40M Offer From SiriusXM

MSNBC stalwart Rachel Maddow isn’t going anywhere after signing at multiyear contract in 2021 to stay with the company. But such security wasn’t always set in stone, reports TheWRAP.

According to a new Vanity Fair profile, the host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” and her new team at Endeavor Talent Agency were actively seeking new opportunities for her career as recently as last year. Maddow and Endeavor president Mark Shapiro were reportedly taking meetings with the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Showtime, CNN and others through summer 2021, ultimately turning down offers from the likes of CNN’s then-president Jeff Zucker and a lucrative opportunity with SiriusXM.

But, of course, Maddow re-upped with NBCUniversal in a multiyear deal that would allow her to host “The Rachel Maddow Show” on a weekly basis while pursuing other projects and mediums across documentaries, streaming specials, movies, books and more. Such projects would fall under her own production company – called Surprise Inside, the profile revealed – while NBC would maintain first right of refusal.

Maddow was “legally restrained from discussing the terms” of her contract for the profile, other than to dispute her reported salary of $30 million. Vanity Fair cited a source with knowledge of the contract that put the final package at a higher price point when working in “separate overhead and a developmental deal.” But the media figure clarified that her negotiations last year with NBC were not “some sort of, like, hostile, heated” enterprise.

“What I asked for, and I realize it’s a really hard thing to ask for from a big corporate entity, is flexibility, fluidity, and forgiveness,” she said. “I want us to handle this in a way that we don’t have to map every second of it. And I want my staff to all stay employed, and I want them to be able to shift between different types of projects, just as I am.”

Of her demands for the final contract with NBC, Maddow admitted that she didn’t think they’d find such common ground.