• by Wayne Friedman , April 12, 2022

Starting in May, Rachel Maddow -- host of the high-rated MSNBC prime-time show that bears her name -- will be cutting back, appearing only once a week, on Mondays.

Maddow will be working on long-term programming projects for MSNBC and NBC News.

During her recent two-month hiatus, she was working on a film based on her book and podcast "Bag Man," which discusses former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew and the period when he faced bribery charges around his time as governor of Maryland in 1973.

Maddow revealed the news on her return to the show on Monday. She did say her new weekly schedule may change, but added "that is the plan as of now.” Some of this has been expected, especially in light of a new deal she recently signed with the network.

Through the rest of this month, Maddow will continue to host the 9 p.m. program on Monday through Thursday until her Monday-only schedule in May begins.

"The Rachel Maddow Show” at 9 p.m. has been the top MSNBC show in terms of viewership for the last several years on the network, as well as a top five cable TV news show overall.

In 2021, "The Rachel Maddow Show" was the fourth-most watched cable TV news show, averaging 2.7 million Nielsen-measured total viewers.

During her absence over the past two months, with many guest hosts, her show has slipped in viewership. For the entire first quarter of 2021, “Maddow” averaged 1.8 million viewers -- in 11th place among all cable TV news shows.

National TV advertising spend on her show for 2021 was $36.6 million, according to iSpot.tv, resulting in 14.2 billion impressions.
The year before -- during the big Presidential election year and during an intense period of COVID-19 pandemic-related news -- national TV spend was $45.7 million.

During the more recent year-over-year period (April 2021 to April 2022), the show has been getting $33.7 million in national TV ad spend, according to EDO Ad EnGage, getting 18.4 billion impressions.