MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow will reportedly take a $5 million pay cut as the cable television network’s ratings continue to dwindle.
The news came as Comcast, NBC’s parent company, announced it would split MSNBC and CNBC from NBC News in its quest to create a new spin-off company with several other Comast-owned cable channels.
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Maddow, 51, is currently on a $30 million-a-year salary at the network, but after renegotiations, her new contract will be for $25 million a year over the next five years, according to The Ankler.
“This is a difficult time, and they needed to keep her,” one executive told the outlet.
“No one else can do what she does. You can’t build a brand like it overnight.”
Maddow, who joined MSNBC in 2008, is the network’s most-recognized news anchor and led its election night coverage.
Read more in The U.S. Sun
Under her new contract, Maddow will continue to anchor her Monday night show and produce podcasts and documentaries.
MSNBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘FANTASY LAND’
Executives at MSNBC have watched as the network’s ratings have plummeted since Donald Trump’s presidential election victory on November 5.
One insider at MSNBC said executives have struggled to come to grips with Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat, describing the network as a “safe space for liberal TV audience.”
“We were so Harris propaganda that when she lost, viewers were shocked,” one on-air pundit told The Ankler.
“It turned into one giant circle jerk and echo chamber. If MSNBC wants to be of service to its viewers, they can’t keep them in fantasy land.”
On Monday, longtime Morning Joe co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough said they traveled to Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to meet with the president-elect.
“Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different,” Brzezinski said.
“And that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump but also talking with him.”
The sit-down received mixed reactions from others inside the network, according to CNN.
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However, Brzezinski doubled down on her and Scarborough’s meeting with President-elect Trump.
“I’ve been surprised by the backlash. And the way I look at it is, people are really scared,” she said during an interview with The Daily Beast.
She said one of the reasons the Morning Joe co-anchors met with Trump is that “people are really scared about Donald Trump’s comments that, you know, political adversaries.
“A lot of people are scared because of what has happened with abortion.
“These are all issues that are important to me and in some ways personal to me, but definitely personal to the people I really care about.”
During Monday’s edition of Morning Joe, Brzezinski said they agreed to “restart communications” with the president-elect after not speaking personally to one another since March 2020.
NBC NETWORK OVERHAUL
As Comcast continues to seek out new opportunities to boost the viewership of its news networks, the media giant announced it would break off some of its cable channels.
Comcast’s plan will be to create a new network that will include channels such as MSNBC, CNBC, USA, E!, Syfy, Oxygen, and the Golf Channel.
Digital media assets, including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, and Sports Engine, will also be included in the new network.
“This transaction positions both SpinCo and NBCUniversal to play offense in a changing media landscape,” said Mike Cavanagh, president of Comcast.
“Taken together, the entirety of NBCUniversal will be on a new growth trajectory, fueled by our world-class content, technology, IP, properties and talent – all working in concert with each other as an integrated media company.”
The new spin-off network will be completed in approximately one year, Comcast said.
CNN SHUTDOWN FEARS
Meanwhile, two sources told The U.S. Sun that big hitters at CNN, such as Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Erin Burnett, Jake Tapper, and Kaitlan Collins, are frightened they’ll get cut as the network also aims to slash the wage bill.
The household anchors have been raking in multi-million dollar deals but now fear that CNN, who cut 100 jobs this summer, will yield the axe again.
Hordes of production staff are also reportedly “scared” of losing their jobs.
Like MSNBC, CNN has been struggling with a massive viewership crisis as numbers continue to hit new lows.
Insiders at the network told The U.S. Sun that another round of massive layoffs is “inevitable” in the following weeks.
“We know that the numbers have been going down a lot, and the tensions have been very high for long months now, as we are getting many signs that people are gonna be fired and axed very soon,” a journalist at the network told The U.S. Sun.
“We have been talking a lot lately, and the result of the elections, as we haven’t had great numbers, is pretty much putting the last nail in the coffin for many workers.
“Some of us have already been approached by some media outlets, like Al Jazeera or even Fox News, and some platforms in the USA and abroad.”
Another source said that the big stars are already thinking about their next moves.
“There are a lot of other media and platforms or TV channels, so the situation is easier for the big stars compared to the other journalists and the production workers,” an 18-year veteran of the network told The U.S. Sun.
“I have been feeling frustration and tensions in the star hosts, like Anderson Cooper, Jack Tapper, and Erin Burnett, for example, and some of them have been fed up with the situation for a bit now.”
Since 2016, CNN’s viewership rating has dramatically declined.
The network averaged 13.3 million primetime viewers, but now that number has fallen to about 800,000.
