Report: Rachel Maddow is seriously considering leaving MSNBC

The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast reports Maddow, MSNBC's No. 1 host whose contract is up early next year, is seriously thinking of leaving cable news altogether and taking her brand elsewhere. Potential landing spots include her own media company or a podcasting and/or streaming platform. Maddow "has in recent months increasingly expressed an openness to exiting when her deal ends, citing a desire to spend more time with her family and the toll of hosting a nightly program since 2008," report The Daily Beast's Lachlan Cartwright and Maxwell Tani, based on six sources. "Maddow seems unlikely to jump to a rival television news network. Instead, she has been intrigued by opportunities in the streaming and podcasting space, which would allow her more freedom, time for her personal life and for other projects, people familiar with her thinking said. The high-profile TV host has gotten aggressive in exploring her next career moves: In recent months, she left her longtime agents at Napoli Management Group, linking up with powerful talent agency Endeavor and its key agents Ari Emanuel and ​​Mark Shapiro, who are representing her in contract negotiations with NBCUniversal." The Daily Beast reports that negotiations have become so "heated" that former MSNBC president Phil Griffin, who left MSNBC earlier this year and who has a close relationship with Maddow, has become involved. "Maddow has occasionally dropped hints about professional burnout," say Cartwright and Tani. "During her Monday evening broadcast, she informed viewers that a two-week break she took earlier this month was the longest vacation she’s taken in her entire life. And during an interview with The New York Times, Maddow said she realized that between writing a book and hosting her show, she barely has any time to herself." Maddow told The Times in 2019: “I’m realizing now—10, 11 years into this—that it’s fine to work long days. But it’s not good for you to work incessant long days, five days a week, 50 weeks a year for 10 years.”