MSNBC stalwart Rachel Maddow isn’t going anywhere after signing at multiyear contract in 2021 to stay with the company. But such security wasn’t always set in stone.
A new study has shown that a majority of respondents are satisfied with the results. Vanity Fair profileThere are many other things to consider. “The Rachel Maddow Show”As recently as last year, Maddow and her Endeavor Talent Agency new team were actively searching for new opportunities to further her career. Maddow and Endeavor president Mark Shapiro were reportedly taking meetings with the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Showtime, CNN and others through summer 2021, ultimately turning down offers from the likes of CNN’s then-president Jeff Zucker and a lucrative opportunity with SiriusXM.
Per Vanity Fair
Sources told me that SiriusXM was ready to offer Maddow a deal worth closer to $40 million and a first-look contract. (Sirius had no comment.) It was her idea that she could host a weekly talkshow while continuing to pursue her other creative projects. This wouldn’t free Maddow from the daily grind, but it was a tempting proposition.
Maddow signed a multi-year contract with NBCUniversal that would allow Maddow to host. “The Rachel Maddow Show”On a weekly basis, she pursues other projects and media, including documentaries, streaming specials and movies, books, and more. Such projects would fall under her own production company – called Surprise Inside, the profile revealed – while NBC would maintain first right of refusal.
Maddow was “legally restrained from discussing the terms”Her reported salary of $30 Million was not disputed by Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair cited a source who knew the contract and said that the final package was priced higher when it was being worked in. “separate overhead and a developmental deal.”However, the media figure clarified that she did not negotiate with NBC last year. “some sort of, like, hostile, heated” enterprise.
“What I asked for, and I realize it’s a really hard thing to ask for from a big corporate entity, is flexibility, fluidity, and forgiveness,”She said. “I want us to handle this in a way that we don’t have to map every second of it. And I want my staff to all stay employed, and I want them to be able to shift between different types of projects, just as I am.”
Of her demands for the final contract with NBC, Maddow admitted that she didn’t think they’d find such common ground.
“I don’t know anybody who’s ever asked for it.… It’s potentially higher risk, higher reward, right? I think, writ large, if they ended up with, like, a hit award-winning podcast, and a hit movie, and a docuseries, and a serial TV show, and I’m covering the State of the Union, and some of the time I’m doing ‘The Rachel Maddow Show,’ that’s probably a better deal for them long-run than me just doing ‘TRMS’ and killing myself and not being able to do anything and, ultimately, having a shorter career because I’m burning myself out,”She said. “Like, I’m not becoming a painter.”
