The Rachel Maddow Show - Wikipedia

The Rachel Maddow Show premiered on September 8, 2008. Keith Olbermann, then host of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, was Maddow's first guest.[4] Olbermann has been credited for persuading MSNBC to give Maddow her own program.[5] Maddow had served as a regular guest host for Countdown when Olbermann was absent. The Rachel Maddow Show replaced Verdict with Dan Abrams.[6]

In a 2019 segment about One America News Network (OANN), Maddow called the network "literally [...] paid Russian propaganda" based upon a Daily Beast article which reported that an OANN reporter also wrote freelance articles for the Russian state-owned Sputnik. In response, OANN sued Maddow, Comcast, MSNBC and NBCUniversal Media.[7] U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant dismissed the suit in 2021, ruling that Maddow's statement was a statement of opinion (thus protected by the First Amendment) and would not be construed by a reasonable viewer as an "assertion of objective fact."[8] Bashant also found that California's anti-SLAPP law applied, meaning that OANN had to pay the defendants' attorneys' fees.[8]

Maddow took a hiatus from February to April 2022 and, upon returning, announced that the show would move from its daily format to weekly on Mondays beginning in May, in order to focus on podcast projects as well as to serve as executive producer for an upcoming film based on her book Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House.[9][10]

In May 2022, the program was retitled MSNBC Prime on nights that Maddow did not host. It otherwise retained the same production staff, format, and presentation as The Rachel Maddow Show, with its guest hosts often being pundits who had a similar style to Maddow.[11] In June 2022, MSNBC announced that Alex Wagner would be Maddow's long-term replacement in the time slot on Tuesdays through Fridays beginning August 16,[12] with her show's title later announced on August 3 as Alex Wagner Tonight.[13]

On January 13, 2025, MSNBC announced that Maddow would temporarily return to a weeknight schedule from January 20 to April 30, 2025, to cover the first 100 days of the second presidency of Donald Trump, with Wagner reassigned to a correspondent role.[14] Wagner's show was ultimately cancelled in a schedule revamp that occurred afterward, being replaced by The Briefing with Jen Psaki.[15][16]