Rachel Maddow Reportedly Turned Down a $40 Million Deal with SiriusXM Before Renegotiating with MSNBC

Rachel Maddow reportedly turned down a lucrative deal from SiriusXM, instead, opting for less money to stay at MSNBC.

In a new Vanity Fair profile, Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show, explained that a few years ago she was shopping around for a career change in hopes of having more time to work on outside projects.

During this period, according to Vanity Fair, SiriusXM came knocking with a $40 million dollar offer along with a first-look deal on any podcast or book she wanted to develop:

There was a much bigger opportunity on the table: SiriusXM was poised to offer Maddow closer to $40 million plus a first-look deal, sources told me. (Sirius had no comment.)

Maddow would eventually re-up her contract with MSNBC in 2021, in a unique deal that would have the anchor only hosting her show one night a week. The contract, reported by The Daily Beast, would land Maddow a $30 million dollar salary, a full $10 million less than the SiriusXM deal.

Maddow disputed the $30 million payday to Vanity Fair. The outlet says, although she was legally obligated not to comment on the details of her contract, “someone else with direct knowledge of the matter told me Maddow’s full package is worth more, when you add a separate overhead and development deal.”

While airing The Rachel Maddow Show one night a week began earlier this year, the extra time has afforded Maddow to develop new projects, including a podcast set to premiere this fall under her new production company, Surprise Inside.

The podcast is set to be a nonfiction, historical- narrative, set in WWII.

Maddow’s other projects include another podcast, another book, “two potential movies and two potential TV shows.”