Rob Bennett for The New York Times
Rachel Maddow, seen here in 2008, the 9 p.m. host on MSNBC.
4:57 p.m. | Updated |
LOS ANGELES– MSNBC said Tuesday that it had signed its top star, Rachel Maddow, to a new multi-year contract, cementing her position at the cable news channel for several years.
The new contract comes a little more than six months after Keith Olbermann hastily departed MSNBC, shaking up the channel’s prime time lineup. Mr. Olbermann, the 8 p.m. host, had been the top draw for viewers; now the top draw is Ms. Maddow, the 9 p.m. host, a protege of Mr. Olbermann who started hosting her show two months before the presidential election in 2008.
Her contract was expected to expire next year; now it will remain in effect well past that point, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the contract extension. Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, confirmed the contract extension at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles.
In an interview here, Ms. Maddow described the new deal as more or less a simple extension of her existing one.
“I’m really, really happy in this job and to have the chance to extend it for a few more years, especially with the year we’re about to have, is a real blessing,” she said. She declined to specify the length of the contract, but said, “This deal was about wanting more years doing what I’ve been doing.”
MSNBC signed a number of prominent contributors to new contracts earlier this year, in part to stave off attempts by Mr. Olbermann to poach them. When Mr. Olbermann brought his MSNBC program, “Countdown,” to Current TV in June, he talked openly about wanting Ms. Maddow to join him there in the future, but her contract extension effectively rules that out.
MSNBC is still sorting out its schedule in the wake of Mr. Olbermann’s exit; at the press tour on Tuesday, Mr. Griffin praised Al Sharpton, who has been hosting the 6 p.m. time slot for a month, but said he had not yet signed up Mr. Sharpton for a permanent position.
The prior 6 p.m. host this year was Cenk Uygur, who was moved out of the time slot and who rejected MSNBC’s offer of a weekend show last month. “I wanted Cenk to stay,” Mr. Griffin said, adding, “I hope one day he comes back. He was terrific. I have nothing bad to say about him.”
The channel is developing other potential progressive-leaning hosts the same way that it developed Ms. Maddow, by having frequent guests fill in as hosts for days or weeks at a time. On Monday, MSNBC said that one of Ms. Maddow’s most frequent substitutes, Christopher Hayes, would start hosting a weekend show in mid-September.
This week MSNBC executives expressed unreserved enthusiasm about another substitute for Ms. Maddow, Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor of political science at Tulane University, who filled in for the first time last week. In an interview Mr. Griffin cited her strong ratings and asked, “How could you not be over the moon about her?”
“She even handled breaking news last week, with the debt-ceiling votes happening,” he said. “She was off prompter, off script, she had people talking in her ear, and she handled it all.”
That kind of reaction is not unlike how MSNBC executives spoke about Ms. Maddow before she was eventually hired as a regular host. Mr. Griffin said, “This reminds me of how it went with Rachel.” But he indicated that he is not ready to sign Ms. Harris-Perry as a full-time host yet.
“Our whole thing is about creating a stable,” he said, adding that the strategy for Ms. Harris-Perry is “to continue to develop her, find places where she can fill in more. Things happen. Who knows?”
If anything, Ms. Maddow was even more impressed by her replacement. “She was awesome,” Ms. Maddow said. “She has been a phenomenal guest and bringing her in as a contributor was exactly the right thing to do. To see her up here and clicking with the teleprompter after like the first date, and to see the audience reaction both anecdotally and quantitatively, I just couldn’t be happier.”
Separately, Mr. Griffin also addressed persistent rumors that CBS could be pursuing MSNBC’s morning team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski. He said CBS “is going to have to be awfully patient,” because MSNBC has the “Morning Joe” team under contract “for a while.” He would not specify exactly how long that is, but he made it clear it is a matter of years, not months. Nor is MSNBC interested in allowing the team out of that contract, he said, citing the show’s improving ratings.
“I know they’re happy where they are,” Mr. Griffin said.
Also on Tuesday, an MSNBC spokesman confirmed that the channel had reinstated Mark Halperin, a political analyst who was suspended at the end of June for using a derogatory remark to disparage President Obama’s performance at a news conference. He is expected to appear on “Morning Joe” Wednesday.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=fe2744a9ddf79ea9b8567100c5439443
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.