Maddow Returns to MSNBC Show, Announces New Schedule Moving Forward

Rachel Maddow returned from her hiatus Monday night, and she said she's not taking another, although she will be on a reduced schedule for her eponymous MSNBC show.

Maddow has been on hiatus from her 9 p.m. show since February 4, although she did appear for a few nights to cover the Russian invasion of Ukraine and President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech. She has been working on a variety of other projects for MSNBC and NBC.

"It's really, really, really nice to be back," the out host said upon her return Monday, adding. "The hiatus has been fantastic. I'm really grateful for it." She thanked the network, her show staff, and the colleagues who filled in as hosts, especially Ali Velshi, who has also been reporting from Ukraine.

"You should know thar Ali Velshi really is a prince among men. ... You should be so lucky ever to have a coworker as great as Ali Velshi," she said.

Then she answered the question on viewers' minds: Will she take another hiatus, an option she left open when she took this one? There has been speculation that she will end the show, which is MSNBC's highest-rated.

"One of the things I realized to my surprise is that I don't actually don't really need another hiatus," she said. She still has a lot of "irons in the fire," she noted, but she's concluded she doesn't need another big block of time off. But she won't be appearing every weeknight on her show.

This month, she said, she'll be on Monday through Thursday, and more often if there's a big news event in the lead-up to this November's election. Starting in May, she'll be on only Monday nights to give herself more time to work on those other projects. That schedule could change, she added, but that's the plan right now.

"And we will never speak of it again," she said. "Enough of that, let's start the show." She then segued into a report on Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin who was arrested in Russia Monday.