The Real Reason Rachel Maddow Is Taking A Hiatus From Her Show

Rachel Maddow announced she's taking time away from hosting "The Rachel Maddow Show" during the January 31 broadcast. The beloved talk show host has previously expressed a desire to cut back her hours, as she revealed during a 2019 interview with The New York Times. "I'm realizing now ... that it's fine to work long days," she said. "But it's not good for you to work incessant long days, five days a week, 50 weeks a year for 10 years." In August 2021, Maddow signed a multi-million dollar deal with MSNBC to move from a nightly show to a weekly show. 

The Daily Mail reported that Maddow would keep hosting her MSNBC show for another year, but there were "heated" negotiations before the agreement was done. Reportedly, Maddow was considering going to another network or starting a media company before the new contract. The popular MSNBC host wanted more "freedom, time for her personal life, and for other projects."

However, there is a bit more that went into Maddow's decision to take a short break from her show in the meantime. 

Rachel Maddow is taking a few weeks off to work on outside projects. The 48-year-old MSNBC host announced her short break on the January 31 broadcast of "The Rachel Maddow Show," per People. Maddow told viewers she is starting a new podcast and will be the executive producer on an upcoming film. The famed anchor will be working as an executive producer on the upcoming film "Bag Man," which is based on Maddow's best-selling book. "Ben Stiller is going to direct it. He's incredible," Maddow said on the January 31st broadcast. "One of the producers of the film is Lorne Michaels — yes, that Lorne Michaels. This has been in the works for a while now. But it looks like it's gonna happen. I am super excited about it."

Though the MSNBC anchor made it clear she'd still be around for big events like the State of the Union, she has plenty else going on. "I am going to take a little bit of time off from this show, to go help with the movie and also to work on some other things that I have cooking with NBC right now, including a new podcast," Maddow continued. "There's also an adaptation of a different book that I want to try to make for TV as well. ... There's all this stuff I've been working on that I want to work some more on."