24-hour news channel MSNBC is going through some rough times, and even its biggest ratings star, Rachel Maddow, isn’t immune to some belt-tightening happening at the network. As originally reported by showbusiness newsletter The Ankler, Maddow has renewed her contract with MSNBC for the next five years, but she’s done so with a significant pay compared to her current contract, going from $30 million down to $25 million over the next five years.
One anonymous TV executive told The Ankler that despite the cut in pay, MSNBC was desperate to keep Maddow on board:
“This is a difficult time and they needed to keep her. No one else can do what she does. You can’t build a brand like it overnight.”
Maddow must believe that MSNBC is still her best home even if she could get more money elsewhere, but negotiations between her and her bosses at Comcast are coming as the company reportedly plans to splinter off its family of NBC-branded channels (including MSNBC and CNBC) into its own separate company. This operation, reportedly known as SpinCo and headed up by NBCUniversal Chairman Mark Lazarus, is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year and would more than likely involve selling the channels, either together or separately, to other entities. Even Elon Musk, who has become a staunch partisan enemy of networks like MSNBC, floated the possibility of buying the channel, although it isn’t clear how serious he actually is about that idea.
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Even with MSNBC struggling in the ratings and somewhat lost amid the recent United States presidential election (one of its other flagship programs, “Morning Joe,” has seen its ratings crater after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski publicized a meeting with incoming President Donald Trump), Maddow is said to be “ratings Viagra” as one exec put it.
She may be getting a steep cut in pay, but Maddow is getting plenty of creative opportunities in addition to her regular program. She will reportedly produce documentaries and podcasts as a part of her contract and will serve as a so-called “secret weapon” on other MSNBC programs in the event of important breaking news stories.
