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MSNBC star Rachel Maddow returned from her lengthy hiatus to announce that she will officially be rolling back her on-air presence.
Following numerous reports that she was looking to scale back from hosting "The Rachel Maddow Show" every weeknight, Maddow confirmed it Monday night, telling viewers she will be hosting Monday through Thursday during the rest of April but then only host on Monday nights beginning in May.
After previously teasing that more hiatuses could occur, Maddow assured her viewers she won't be needing one, explaining that turning her nightly program into a weekly one will give her time to work on other projects but that she will appear for "big" news events and election coverage.
However, Maddow teased that "this might change" and "we will see how things go," but suggested this will be the plan going forward.
MSNBC star Rachel Maddow. (Photo by Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Maddow left MSNBC's airwaves back in February to pursue various projects including podcasts and even a film collaboration with Ben Stiller and Lorne Michaels, only returning to the network for its coverage of President Biden's State of the Union address.
The vacant time slot during Maddow's hiatus was largely held by MSNBC's Ali Velshi among a rotation of other hosts.
RACHEL MADDOW ON HIATUS LEAVES MSNBC ‘LOST AT SEA,’ CRITICS SAY
A source familiar with the situation told Fox News that her time slot for the remainder of the week will be hosted by a group of rotating hosts and that there are no immediate plans to select a permanent host.
Fox News reached out to MSNBC for comment.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
"The Rachel Maddow Show" was MSNBC's most-watched show in 2021, averaging roughly 2.6 million viewers at 9 p.m. ET, trailing behind Fox News' "Hannity" at 2.9 million in the same time slot but far ahead of her primetime colleagues Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Hayes, who averaged only 1.8 million and 1.6 million viewers respectively.
Maddow is the only MSNBC host to consistently average above the 2 million-viewer benchmark and rank among the top ten most-watched cable news programs, the other nine being Fox News programs.
However, Maddow's namesake program has suffered greatly during her hiatus.
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The week of April 4 through 8 is on pace to be the lowest-rated week for "The Rachel Maddow Show" since 2016, averaging only 1.3 million viewers through Thursday’s episode. The last time "Maddow" had a smaller average audience was the week of Dec. 26, 2016.
During the host's lengthy absence, MSNBC continued to brand its 9 p.m. hour as "The Rachel Maddow Show." It lost a staggering 40% of its viewers compared to the last week that Maddow actually hosted it. The show averaged 1.6 million viewers compared to 3.1 million for Fox News’ "Hannity," which airs in the same 9 p.m. ET timeslot.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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