Political commentator Rachel Maddow will bring her own prime-time program, The Rachel Maddow Show, to MSNBC this fall, as reported by The New York Times on August 19. The 35-year-old Air America Radio personality will also make history by becoming the first out lesbian to host a prime-time television news program, an achievement which was not mentioned in the newspaper’s announcement.
Maddow will replace Dan Abrams in the 9pm slot as of September 8, focusing first on the final weeks of the historic presidential campaign.
Since the spring, Maddow has been serving as the fill-in host on the network’s popular program, Countdown With Keith Olbermann. In July, MSNBC president Phil Griffin confirmed that she was at the top of the list to get her own show at the network. “This is great; getting a regular cable show is something I’ve wanted,” Maddow said in a telephone interview with The New York Times.
A Rhodes Scholar with a background in HIV/AIDS activism, Maddow got her start in radio when she entered a contest for a local station in Amherst, Massachusetts. She currently divides her time between Manhattan and western Massachusetts, where she lives with her long-term partner, artist Susan Mikula.
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