MSNBC mainstay Rachel Maddow has reportedly taken a significant pay cut to stay with the network following a dip in ratings. The popular anchor and host of the eponymously titled Rachel Maddow Show has renegotiated a new five-year contract, which sees her typical $30 million annual salary now down to $25 million, according to The Ankler. “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,” one executive told the publication of the network’s decision. These figures have not been confirmed; however, a network source told The Independent the number was inaccurate but declined to comment further.
The left-leaning news channel has seen a drop in ratings after Donald Trump ’s election victory, with Nielson ratings showing a 40 percent drop compared to last year’s ratings, The Daily Beast reported. Network producers are also having to figure out how to properly platform conservative voices on the “only safe space for a liberal TV audience,” another insider told The Daily Beast. “We were so Harris propaganda that when she lost, viewers were shocked,” one anonymous on-air pundit told the outlet.
“It turned into one giant circle j**k and echo chamber. If MSNBC wants to be of service to its viewers, they can’t keep them in fantasy land.” Maddow, 51, was praised by one executive network who called her “ratings Viagra.
” She first joined MSNBC in January 2008 as a political analyst.