Rachel Maddow: Our Favorite Rhodes Scholar

[ScoobieDoobs]

I've watched Alex a bit & she's OK, but here's the biggest prob I have with her.  I find her mostly unmemorable & unremarkable.  And I have almost zero incentive to watch her regularly cuz of my indifference to her.  She did a very well produced segment last week on FL teachers that were shocked by some looney orientation they attended, which was backed by DeSantis, enforcing the idea that separation of church & state is bad & Christianity should be taught in public schools.  A great piece, but Alex was kinda meh.

Welp, I never keep track of, or care about ratings, but they will tell the story.  Big ratings on Monday nite & ratings in the shithole the rest of the week?  Will the genius execs who gave Rach this deal, give Alex a chance or will they get rid of her once they see how bad her ratings are?

Sorry, but I find this whole Rachel-on-once-a-week crap depressing as hell.  Particularly as CNN ramps up efforts to become another Fox News -- and make no mistake, it is starting to do just that, with more Trumpers popping up on all their shows, along with long segments promoting anti-abortion propagandists.  Ugh, guess I'm just left to watch LOD & maybe Nicole every once in a while.  

Rachel's show is just not the same, being on once a week.  She's gotta spend so much time catching up on all the news she's missed.  So she'll do her long history shtick start-off, go over the old news from a week prior that's stale by air-time & maybe have time for an interview or 2 -- rinse, lather & repeat?  It's disappointing.

[ScoobieDoobs]

Anyone watching Rachel or Alex lately?  I watched Rachel's interview with Geoffrey Berman & it highlighted the problem with her being on -- is it once a week?  Seems like once a month.  The interview was short & she missed so much, cuz he really had a ton to say.  Honestly, I thought she accomplished zilch with this interview cuz she had so little time to devote to him.  Nicole did a way better, much longer, more incisive interview with him.

Sure, Rach looks very happy & peppy, but sorry, being on once every never, just isn't the same.  It shows a big lack of commitment on Rachel's part.  The show is not the same.  It's not working, Rach -- and if you don't wanna do the show anymore, which you clearly don't, kiss it goodbye & just make some rare appearances on special occasions & fish to your heart's content.

And Alex?  I've been watching her & I think she's really good.  I recommend giving her a try!  She's smart, she's trying hard, has good guests & clearly very good producers.  I'm surprised to find I'm liking her & watching her more often.  OK, I'm not watching her yet as much as I did Rachel, but I think it's time to accept Rachel is finished doing a show in this format.  I hope Alex's ratings grow . . .

[tessaray]

I thought that Alex and Rachel were both using the old TRMS writing team, though maybe that was just for the rotating hosts?

I agree that Rachel's existing format kinda falls flat once a week. I do try to catch it still but it doesn't seem sustainable.  The network needs to go all in with Alex (no pun intended) and move Rachel to either Laurence's Friday night slot or Sunday morning maybe.

Alex is a bit too bubbly for my taste though I do watch once in awhile. 

[shok]

I think Rachel still does a marvelous job with her show and the way she handled Berman's new book and her subsequent interview with him was like having our old Rachel back. She is so good at what she does that I'm glad we get her even once a week. I imagine in a few months we'll start seeing some specials that she's been working on and they'll be great and we'll all be happy that she had the time to make them.

[ahisma]

15 hours ago, tessaray said:

The network needs to go all in with Alex (no pun intended) and move Rachel to either Laurence's Friday night slot or Sunday morning maybe.

I think a Friday or Saturday slot. Monday is not generally  a big news day, so she is often now repackaging the previous week’s events, which the weekend shows already did.

11 hours ago, shok said:

I imagine in a few months we'll start seeing some specials that she's been working on and they'll be great and we'll all be happy that she had the time to make them.

Very much looking forward to these!

[meowmommy]

17 hours ago, shok said:

I think Rachel still does a marvelous job with her show and the way she handled Berman's new book and her subsequent interview with him was like having our old Rachel back.

Afraid I must respectfully disagree.  She spends way too much time reading from people's books and not enough time talking to the actual author about what they've written.

Her show is at the point where it's only relevant if a given piece of news breaks on Monday.  Her format isn't suited for a weekly program.  If she wants to do a weekly show, she needs to upend the format and go to something else other than 1/5 of what we expected from TRMS. 

But I have zero interest in her specials or podcasts or whatever else she is getting paid a gazillion dollars to create, so I don't know what she could put out there once a week that could approach the impact of her daily show.

[ruby24]

Why is she not on tonight? 

This once a week thing sucks.

[tessaray]

3 hours ago, ruby24 said:

Why is she not on tonight? 

This once a week thing sucks.

I don't think anyone has said. Maybe she didn't want to compete with all the Royal coverage?

And I agree. 🙂

Editing to add that details floating around months ago of Rachel's contract said she was specifically to do 30 Monday shows, election night coverage and other specials. But which 30 Mondays? I guess we find out as we go. 

[Prairie Rose]

When they announced on Monday that Alex was in for Rachel because Rachel had the night off, I said, "OFF FROM WHAT???" Nothing against Alex (who admittedly isn't really my cup of tea), but the entire 9 PM slot just isn't the same. I actually didn't mind MSNBC Prime if we couldn't get daily Rachel.

[tessaray]

Rachel's next podcast debuts October 10.

https://deadline.com/2022/10/rachel-maddow-podcast-msnbc-world-war-ii-1235133662/ 

 The podcast, Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, will debut its first two episodes on Oct. 10, with further episodes on subsequent Mondays. According to MSNBC, in the eight episode series Maddow “will guide listeners through history to tell the story of Americans who plotted to overthrow the government and democracy during World War II, the members of Congress who aligned themselves with hat movement, and their attempts to cover their tracks when they were exposed.”

[possibilities]

Why is it called "Ultra"?

[tessaray]

9 hours ago, possibilities said:

Why is it called "Ultra"?

From what she said on Monday's show, it's about the Ultra Right and the stuff they tried to do before WWII. And I assume how it parallels to what's going on now.

[tessaray]

I have created a topic for the new podcast. 

[ScoobieDoobs]

Speaking of podcasts, I'm now hooked on Molly Jong Fast's new podcast.  If you miss Rachel, cuz she's pretty much never on anymore or spends most of her shows (the rare time she is on) giving history lessons, I highly recommend Molly's podcast!  It has become my replacement for Rachel's show as it is now.

Yup, I tried watching Rach last week & this week, and it left me puzzled & thinking Rach is in some bizarro alternate universe where she's thinking she's still on every day & can do the same show & she thinks it'll work the same way.  Welp, you're not, Rach & someone needs to clue you & your production crew in that when you spend half your show giving a history lesson, then you have zero time to interview with anyone with any kind of depth, or talk much about any of the latest news.  Last week, she never talked about Letitia James or any of the week's Trump news.  Really, Rach?  Ugh!

She had Dahlia Lithwick on this week & sure, she has a great chemistry with her, but so what?  Dahlia has so much important analysis to discuss on what's going on with this horrible & frightening Supreme Court, & Rachel must've spent (maybe) 5 minutes with her.  Sorry, Rach, but that just sucks!  Molly (on her podcast) spent nearly a half-hour with a terrific in-depth interview with Dahlia.  This is what Rachel used to do, but sadly, and notedly, now does NOT do.  Sorry, Rach, but I'm ready to move on from you if your show (and career) is headed to mostly (or only) giving history lessons.  Maybe it's time for Rach to retire completely from TV & teach & write books?  She'd make a great professor!

Edited October 5, 2022 by ScoobieDoobs

[tessaray]

Second the rec for Molly Jong-Fast. (Though I miss the New Abnormal and am only slowly adjusting to Fast Politics.) 

1 hour ago, ScoobieDoobs said:

Maybe it's time for Rach to retire completely from TV & teach & write books?  She'd make a great professor

She really would. Though I would settle for her recognizing that her old format doesn't work all that well once a week. 

[shok]

On 10/4/2022 at 7:52 PM, tessaray said:

She really would. Though I would settle for her recognizing that her old format doesn't work all that well once a week. 

I think her old format works just fine. Only problem is it makes me miss her even more.

[BuckeyeLou]

Just FYI: Rachel will be on the "Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" tonight

[ScoobieDoobs]

Ah, Rachel ended her show tonite so perfectly.  She clearly made the point about Dems passing into law, negotiating Medicare drug prices -- and how Rubio wants to role this back.  She shook her head sadly & asked why the people of Florida (a state bursting with older people) would want him as a senator -- as he'll likely get re-elected cuz the infinitely more qualified Val Demmings is trailing him in the polls.

See, this is why I miss Rachel so much as she used to be, before this pretty-much retired shtick she's in now.  We need her clear-eyed, dead-on analysis so much now, but we only get these tiny glimmers . . .

On 10/4/2022 at 10:52 PM, tessaray said:

Second the rec for Molly Jong-Fast. (Though I miss the New Abnormal and am only slowly adjusting to Fast Politics.) 

She really would. Though I would settle for her recognizing that her old format doesn't work all that well once a week. 

I agree, Molly had a great chemistry with Andy Levy on The New Abnormal.  Actually, I mentioned Molly cuz I thought maybe Rach might consider doing a similar podcast.  Now, that would be great!!

[BuckeyeLou]

I always enjoy seeing Rachel in a relaxed setting, she was fun on The Tonight Show, she told an interesting story about how she was working on her podcast while on a Cross-Country Train ride with her family & Susan's family, everybody was looking at the scenery & Rachel was busy telling everyone about historic places they were passing. 

[Prairie Rose]

Here's the interview with Jimmy Fallon:

[M. Darcy]

Rachel has another podcast coming out!  Article with info.  

[M. Darcy]

I got my ticket to see Rachel in DC! 

[buttersister]

Rachel’s  coming to the Chicago Humanities Festival. They put all their guests up on their YouTube channel. Eventually. Enjoy.