The Secret to Rachel Maddow's Success

Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress at 8:10 AM on November 24, 2008.

Head of MSNBC on Maddow's success: 'She comes in every day and studies for eight hours.'

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Newsweek reports that, since Rachel Maddow's show debuted on Sept. 8, "she has more than doubled the ratings of her predecessor, Dan Abrams, with 1.9 million average total viewers, and she's beaten CNN's Larry King 27 out of 44 nights among viewers 25 to 54." MSNBC executives say the key to her success is her hard work:

For Maddow, the job never really stops. She regularly works 16-hour days, only eating once she has finished. She often has just one large meal at 2 a.m., purchased from street vendors. [Executive producer Bill] Wolff says she "simply wants to be excellent." Phil Griffin, the head of MSNBC, attributes her success to a certain "magic," and to her application: "She comes in every day and studies for eight hours. I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make when they come in to television and cable news, which is a really intense, competitive area, is to not work hard. This is not for the soft of heart. It’s intense."

Tagged as: msnbc, maddow, hard work

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report.