MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will take hiatus to work on a movie

MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow plans to take a hiatus in order to focus on other projects, including podcasting and serving as executive producer for a movie, Business Insider reported Monday.

Maddow, who hosts MSNBC's most watched show, is expected to make the formal announcement on air Monday night.

According to The New York Post, "Her absence is expected to last a few weeks, after which she will return to host her nightly hour-long talk show."

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The New York Times reports that Maddow "is expected to make occasional return appearances on MSNBC throughout her hiatus, including for the network's coverage of President Biden's State of the Union speech in March" and that "a rotation of fill-in anchors will handle the network's 9 p.m. slot" until she returns.

Last year, the Rachel Maddow Show host signed a multi-year contract to stay at MSNBC, but the terms of the contract reportedly reduce her workload over the next few years, including potentially transitioning her show, which currently airs every weeknight, into a weekly program.

The biggest side project the liberal anchor has in the pipe is a film adaptation of her podcast and book Bag Man, which explored the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973.

The Amazon description of the book, which Maddow co-wrote with Michael Yarvitz, calls it a "blockbuster account" of "a vast criminal enterprise within the halls of the White House."

Ben Stiller is on board to direct the film. Maddow will serve as executive producer.