MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Taking Break From Show to Produce Ben Stiller Film

Television host Rachel Maddow in Washington in a file photograph. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow confirmed this week she is taking a break from her show to work on other projects.

Maddow told viewers that she is taking “a few weeks off” from her left-wing, Comcast-owned cable news show.

“Change is good,” she said during her show on Monday night. “Change is absolutely terrifying, but in this case it’s good.”

Maddow confirmed reports she will work on a film that is being directed by “Zoolander” actor Ben Stiller and will be produced by longtime “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels.

“I am super-excited to tell you about it when I have more to tell,” Maddow told viewers as she was hosting from home on Monday because, according to her, she was exposed to someone with COVID-19.

“Just like late-night hosts sometimes go on hiatus and their shows, I’m gonna go on hiatus here for a little bit from the show,” she also said during her show, adding that viewers can expect her to return in April.

There might“ eventually be another hiatus again sometime in my future,” Maddow also said. “But we are just taking it one step at a time.”

Maddow’s ratings are often higher than CNN’s ratings, although she rarely tops the Fox News shows led by Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, according to reports citing Neilsen data.

During former President Donald Trump’s presidency, Maddow’s show experienced relatively high ratings amid her show’s constant focus on the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, including featuring details on the now-debunked Steele dossier that was produced by former UK intelligence agent Christopher Steele on behalf of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election cycle.

Special prosecutor John Durham, a former U.S. attorney from Connecticut appointed by former Attorney General William Barr, has charged several individuals in connection to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, including Michael Sussmann, who had worked for the Washington-based law firm Perkins Coie that was retained by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

MSNBC president Rashida Jones recently told news outlets that Maddow’s new deal with MSNBC will allow her to produce other properties for them.

“We’ve got parts of our business that focus on documentaries, that focus on long-form, scripted, unscripted, films, podcasts, audio, all of these things,” Jones said last year. “Part of the process that we are figuring out with Rachel is how do we get exposure on more of those places? We do know that the work she and the team will put out every day is of high interest.”