Rachel Maddow Returns To Prime Time To Tackle Trump’s First 100 Days
The circus is coming back to town, and Rachel Maddow will be watching it closely.
Rachel Maddow will return to hosting her MSNBC program, The Rachel Maddow Show, five nights a week during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency. Maddow had scaled back to hosting only on Monday nights in May 2022 to dedicate time to other projects, including podcasts and a book. With the early days of Trump’s administration expected to draw intense public scrutiny, there will undoubtedly be plenty for the star anchor to discuss.
The network, which has faced significant challenges in retaining its prime-time audience since Trump’s election, may get the boost it needs with Maddow’s return. Her in-depth, analytical approach to political and policy coverage has made her a standout voice at MSNBC since The Rachel Maddow Show premiered in 2008. She has become the network’s defining personality.
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Maddow will anchor coverage of Trump’s inauguration next Tuesday and resume her nightly program at 9 p.m. in the days after. “There’s a sort of head-in-the-sand wish casting that’s happening with a lot of people checking out of the news, thinking ‘If I don’t hear about it, if I don’t look at it, then maybe it’s not happening,’” Maddow told USA Today. “But people know that’s not actually the way to stop it from happening. If this shambolic transition is anything to go on, the second Trump term is going to affect a lot of Americans, and they’re going to want to pay attention.”
MSNBC has long been a favorite among progressive viewers and a hub for anti-Trump sentiment. Still, it faces mounting hurdles, including steep viewership declines and looming structural changes. In related news, the network announced Tuesday that its president, Rashida Jones, is stepping down. Veteran news executive Rebecca Kutler will step in as interim president. And Variety reports that Comcast, MSNBC’s parent company, may spin off the network into a new publicly traded entity.
With Rachel Maddow back on nightly prime-time, Trump’s first 100 days won’t just make headlines—they’ll come with footnotes, charts, and probably a 20-minute monologue. Buckle up.
