Rachel Maddow and MSNBC have reached a new deal that will keep the popular primetime host at the network past 2022, according to individuals familiar with the matter.
The new deal includes Maddow developing other projects for the network, “though the details are still being finalized,” according to The Wall Street Journal. The exact terms and duration of the new deal were not immediately clear.
MSNBC didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.
Earlier this month, Maddow had enlisted superagent and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel and the now public-company’s president Mark Shapiro to represent her in contract talks with MSNBC and its parent company NBCUniversal. Her present contract was set to expire in early 2022. Maddow was considering leaving the network to start her own media platform, according to The Daily Beast.
Maddow has consistently been the highest-rated host on MSNBC, and her departure would have been a major blow to the network. “The Rachel Maddow Show” has been the network’s tentpole primetime show and has gained in popularity since its inception in 2008.
Maddow won a Grammy Award in 2021 in the Best Spoken Word Album category for the audiobook version of her 2019 book “Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth,” which explores the impact and influence of fossil fuel companies in world governments, particularly those connected to Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin.
She is also the author of two other books — “Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power” and “Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House,” which she wrote with Michael Yarvitz and was based on her podcast about the Vice President Spiro Agnew corruption scandal that resulted in his resignation in 1973.
