Dec 31, 2018, 09:17pm

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Hits No. 1 With Long, Complicated Segments Viewers Love

Mark Joyella
Contributor
Media
I cover political media--and media politics.

One night back in July, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow paused for a moment as she began her 9 p.m. E.T. hour, The Rachel Maddow Show. “All right, first,” she said, inhaling. “Deep breath.”

Maddow was about to do something that few in cable news would dare attempt: devoting the next 27 minutes—-an eternity in television news—-to slowly and methodically tying together thread after thread in the messy, confusing and complicated story of Donald Trump and Russia.

This was Maddow in her element, at her best. She was pulling things together, making sense of something that wasn’t easy to understand, but was exceptionally important. “Things are at a boil,” Maddow told her audience that night, taking her time. “Things are going fast now. Everybody needs to pay attention.”


Maddow’s viewers have been paying attention, coming back night after night for long, meaty segments packed with nuance—and pushing The Rachel Maddow Show to the best ratings in the show's ten year history, and in recent weeks, becoming the highest-rated prime-time show in all of cable news.

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