https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/where-s-rachel-maddow-msnbc-host-won-t-be-on-the-air-much-moving-forward/ar-AAWT1y9?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=5d0a89fa7f36490486a5b641ed008180
Philadelphia Inquirer
Where’s Rachel Maddow? MSNBC host won’t be on the air much moving forward.
Rob Tornoe, The Philadelphia Inquirer - Yesterday 2:52 PM
After a five-week hiatus, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow jokingly reintroduced herself to her viewers when she returned to her show last month.
Now she’s taking more time off.
Maddow will only host her MSNBC show on Monday nights going forward. It’s part of a new contract she signed with the network that will allow her time to work on other projects for MSNBC and NBC, including a film version of her award-winning podcast Bag Man, directed by Ben Stiller.
In some ways, it’s the end of an era for MSNBC, where Maddow has hosted her popular show for nearly 14 years. It has grown into the most-watched program on the network, regularly drawing more than 2 million viewers, going toe-to-toe on most nights with Fox News host Sean Hannity (CNN remains a distant third). Not surprisingly, ratings dipped during Maddow’s hiatus earlier this year.
So far, MSNBC isn’t announcing a permanent host to replace Maddow at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. But they are renaming the show MSNBC Prime on those nights, another sign Maddow’s move is permanent.
For now, the network will turn to a series of guest hosts. First up is Ali Velshi, who will host this week and was a regular fill-in during Maddow’s hiatus.
“You should be so lucky to ever have a co-worker as great as Ali Velshi,” Maddow said last month. “We are incredibly lucky to have him here at MSNBC and I’m really really grateful that he helmed things so ably while I was gone.”
As with her hiatus, Maddow is expected to return to the network to co-anchor big news nights. It’s possible she’ll be on the air Tuesday, May 17, as part of MSNBC’s coverage of Pennsylvania’s primary election, which features a battle for the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
What we know about the film version of ‘Bag Man’
The short answer? Not much.
Bag Man will be based on Maddow’s podcast and book (co-written by Michael Yarvitz) of the same name, which focused on the bribery and extortion ring run out of the White House by Spiro Agnew, former President Richard Nixon’s vice president. The crimes were uncovered by three young prosecutors, who focused on bringing Agnew to justice during the height of the Watergate scandal before he could become the next president.
Ultimately, Agnew pleaded no contest to a single charge of tax evasion and resigned on Oct. 10, 1973. Ten months later, Nixon resigned and left the White House.
The film version of Bag Man is being developed by Focus Features, which is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal and owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast. Maddow is an executive producer, and one of the producers is longtime Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels.
So far, no actors have been announced, and the film doesn’t have a release date. But Ben Stiller, fresh off his success with the first season of Apple TV+’s Severance, is attached to direct the movie.
“I’m hoping to shoot Bag Man this summer,” Stiller told Deadline last month.
The script is being written by Stiller, Yarvitz, and Adam Perlman, best known for his work on Showtime’s Billions. He also wrote on The Newsroom and The Good Wife, and is working on a new untitled drama series for Apple TV+ with Robert Downey Jr.
Maddow is also working on another TV project and a new podcast
Another mystery project of Maddow’s is a new podcast for MSNBC. We don’t know anything about it yet, and MSNBC declined to comment. All we know is the structure won’t just be Maddow interviewing guests.