MSNBC mainstay Rachel Maddow has reportedly taken a significant pay cut to stay with the network following a dip in ratings.
The popular anchor and host of the eponymously titled Rachel Maddow Show has renegotiated a new five-year contract, which sees her typical $30 million annual salary now down to $25 million, according to The Ankler.
“This is a difficult time and they needed to keep her. No one else can do what she does. You can’t build a brand like it overnight,” one executive told the publication of the network’s decision.
These figures have not been confirmed; however, a network source told The Independent the number was inaccurate but declined to comment further.
The left-leaning news channel has seen a drop in ratings after Donald Trump’s election victory, with Nielson ratings showing a 40 percent drop compared to last year’s ratings, The Daily Beast reported.
Network producers are also having to figure out how to properly platform conservative voices on the “only safe space for a liberal TV audience,” another insider told The Daily Beast.
“We were so Harris propaganda that when she lost, viewers were shocked,” one anonymous on-air pundit told the outlet. “It turned into one giant circle j**k and echo chamber. If MSNBC wants to be of service to its viewers, they can’t keep them in fantasy land.”
Maddow, 51, was praised by one executive network who called her “ratings Viagra.”
She first joined MSNBC in January 2008 as a political analyst and a regular panelist on its Race for the White House program with David Gregory. She was also a substitute host for its Countdown with Keith Olbermann show.
In August of that year, the channel announced The Rachel Maddow Show would replace its Verdict with Dan Abrams’s 9 p.m. slot the following month.
With her new contract, Maddow will continue hosting her Monday-night show in addition to producing podcasts and documentaries for the network.
Maddow’s pay cut comes amid an increasingly rocky media landscape. Just last week veteran broadcaster Chris Wallace announced he was departing CNN to explore the podcast and streaming landscape.
However, it was later reported that his exit came after he was informed his two shows — Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? and The Chris Wallace Show — were getting canceled, and his reported $7 million annual salary was going to be massively slashed.
His salary reduction came as part of the company’s wider cost-cutting initiatives, according to Puck News. It was also reported that CNN chief executive Mark Thompson had told Wallace he was welcome to stay with the network – but as an analyst with a much lower salary.
Wallace insisted that he did not partake in any discussions about his future with the network, telling the outlet: “It doesn’t matter what was or wasn’t said in that meeting because I had already decided with my wife six months ago to leave CNN. Any further speculation is irrelevant.”
