Rachel Maddow will return to MSNBC's nightly duties, at least for the first few months of the second Trump administration.
The network announced Monday that Maddow will lead coverage of President Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 and will begin airing prime-time programming five times a week starting at 9 p.m. ET starting that night.
Maddow's new schedule will run through April 30, after which he will return to his current Monday-only routine, with Alex Wagner filling the Tuesday-through-Friday slot. Wagner will be out on a variety of reporting assignments during the first 100 days of the new administration.
Under her new contract, Maddow will step back from appearing on TV five days a week in 2022, giving her more flexibility to pursue other projects. She has successfully launched a series of podcasts.
However, despite her more limited television schedule, she remains MSNBC's signature personality and most popular host. Last year, Mr. Maddow's show averaged 2.5 million viewers on Mondays, an increase of 866,000 viewers that week when time-shifted viewers are included, according to Nielsen.
Maddow will also be the main anchor for the network's coverage of President Trump's inauguration starting next Monday at 10 a.m. ET.
The left-leaning network's viewership has fallen dramatically after Trump's victory in the November election, and MSNBC is trying to determine whether it will become a major destination for Trump opponents.
MSNBC argues that the post-election slump is typical for a network whose audience is dominated by supporters of the losing candidate, and that viewers are slowly starting to return.
The network said Maddow had 1.6 million viewers last Monday, a 20% increase compared to its November and December average.
