You won’t see Rachel Maddow on MSNBC anytime soon.
Maddow, the popular cable new host who has been the face of MSNBC’s prime-time opinion coverage since 2008, is taking a lengthy hiatus from her popular show to work on several projects, including a movie version of her popular book and podcast "Bag Man," about former Vice President Spiro Agnew.
“Like late night hosts sometimes go on hiatus on their shows, I’m going to go on hiatus here for a little bit from this show, so I can work on some of those other projects,” Maddow said earlier this week.
“Change is good. Change is absolutely terrifying, but in this case it’s good,” Maddow said. “Now let’s never speak of this again.”
While Maddow is away, MSNBC will turn to a rotating cast of hosts to fill in over the next two months. Up first is Ali Velshi, who has regularly sat in for Maddow and other MSNBC hosts. Velshi will fill in for Maddow through Feb. 11.
Maddow will remain off the show until April, though she is expected to appear on MSNBC during its coverage of large news events, such as President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union speech, scheduled for March 1.
Maddow’s absence is a sign of things to come for MSNBC. It’s been reported that the nightly edition of "The Rachel Maddow Show" will end sometime this year as part of a new contract she signed with MSNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, which allows her to work on different projects. Maddow herself hinted at this by saying there might be “another hiatus sometime in the future.”
“For now, we’re just taking it one step at a time,” Maddow said.
What we know about the film version of ‘Bag Man’
So far, not many details have been released about the film, which is being developed by Focus Features, which is also a subsidiary of NBCUniversal and owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast.
“This has been in the works for a while now, but now it looks like it’s going to happen,” Maddow said Monday night.
"Bag Man" is about Agnew, former President Richard Nixon’s vice president, who carried out a brazen bribery and extortion ring at the height of the Watergate scandal. The crimes were discovered by three young prosecutors, who focused on bringing Agnew to justice before he became the next president.
The film is being directed by Ben Stiller, whom most people know for his comedic roles and the star of hits like "There’s Something About Mary" and "Meet the Parents." But Stiller has a couple of film directing credits under his belt, including the "Zoolander" films, "Tropic Thunder" and the cult classic "Reality Bites." He also recently directed the Showtime series "Escape at Dannemora," based on the story of two convicted murderers who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015.
Maddow is an executive producer, and one of the film’s producers is longtime "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels. So far no actors have been announced for the film, and no release date has been set.
Maddow is also working on another podcast
We don’t know much about the new podcast Maddow is working on for MSNBC, other than it won’t involve her just sitting in front of a microphone interviewing people. Maddow said it will be along the lines of "Bag Man," but focused on an entirely different topic.
“It’s got a specific arc, a specific story. It’s a reported, journalistic tale,” Maddow said. “It’s not just like a jibber-jabber podcast where I chat with people and admit I haven’t done the reading.”
Maddow also said she just started working on adapting another book (she didn’t mention the title) for television.
“There’s all this stuff I’ve been working on that I want to work some more on,” Maddow said.
Maddow’s hiatus comes amid other changes at MSNBC
Maddow’s absence and the potential end of her weeknight show comes in the wake of Brian Williams’ departure from MSNBC in December. Williams had hosted "The 11th Hour" since 2015, after losing his job as the anchor of NBC’s "Nightly News" for falsely claiming he was in a helicopter hit by enemy fire during the Iraq War.
Replacing Williams at the 11 p.m. ET slot is NBC News senior business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle, who hosts the 9 a.m. hour on MSNBC. Rashida Jones, the president of MSNBC, called Ruhle “a trusted voice on topics at the intersection of politics, finance and international business.”
"Morning Joe," which is hosted by husband-wife duo Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, will get an additional 60 minutes and air on MSNBC from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
No official date has been released, but a memo last week announcing the programming change said they would take effect in a few months.
———
