The Reported Favorite of MSNBC Execs To Replace Rachel Maddow? A Former Bush Official
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 15: Rachel Maddow Visits “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” at Rockefeller Center on March 15, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for NBC)
Last month, Rachel Maddow and MSNBC reached a $30 million per year agreement to keep the network’s top-rated host through the 2024 election. While The Rachel Maddow Show will continue to air weeknights at 9pm ET for the time being, there is a rumor that it could eventually transition to a weekly format. She has the option of terminating her nightly show beginning in April of 2022, according to reports.
That detail has prompted speculation about possible replacements for the coveted primetime slot. If a report from news media guru Dylan Byers is to be believed, the likely favorite – at least among current MSNBC hosts – is Nicolle Wallace, the host of MSNBC’s Deadline White House, and former White House Communications director under George W. Bush.
As one NBC executive told Byers, “Nicolle is the most obvious in-house candidate.”
Byers — who recently departed NBC, where he served as a media correspondent, for the startup Puck — explained the rationale of potentially replacing Maddow with a former Bushie in Puck News:
The idea that a former Republican operative could replace a progressive icon like Maddow will surely confound and even anger some MSNBC loyalists. But from the vantage point of NBC’s C-suite, it has its logic. Wallace is smart, capable, charismatic—”producible,” as one former NBC executive put it. No one should underestimate how important that is in television, even to a network that caters to liberal political sensibilities. Today, Wallace may just be a likeable Never Trump ex-Republican advocating for competent policy and politics; with the right packaging and marketing, she could become a hero of that cause. She is also well liked by Maddow, several sources said, and would have her blessing.
Byers reports that other MSNBC hosts, including Ari Melber, Joy Reid, and Chris Hayes have been seeking the 9pm time slot. He says “several high-level MSNBC insiders” regard Hayes and Melber as nonstarters given their ratings performances. Reid, meanwhile, has had to apologize for homophobic remarks she made on her blog more than a decade ago.
