TCA: MSNBC Inks New Deal With Rachel Maddow

Multi-year contract keeps primetime host on network through next election

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/2/2011 2:32:43 PM

Complete Coverage: 2011 TCA Summer Press Tour

MSNBC has signed primetime host Rachel Maddow to a new multi-year contract, network president Phil Griffin confirmed at the Television Critics' Association press tour in Los Angles Tuesday.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Maddow said the new contract is essentially the same as her previous one.

"There aren't major new terms in the deal," she said after MSNBC's panel session. "There are tweaks here and there, but essentially what I have just agreed to do with MSNBC is keep doing what I'm doing for more years. And that's exactly what I wanted."

Maddow said her current contract was not set to expire this year but she took the chance to renegotiate before the upcoming election year.

"Had we not renegotiated [now], we'd be renegotiating in a year," she said. "And given the opportunity to renegotiate now instead I took it."

Also not included in the new contract is a role for Maddow on NBC News' upcoming primetime newsmagazine, with Maddow saying she hasn't had any conversations about contributing to the Brian Williams-hosted hour.

"I work really long days," she said. "I'm really happy doing what I'm doing and I'm not looking to do something else on top of what I'm doing. I'm not trying to pick up extra work."

The Rachel Maddow Show premiered on MSNBC in September 2008. In July, the show was up 24% year over year in adults 25-54 and 9% in total viewers.