Puck’s Dylan Byers continued his reporting Friday night on the fallout from Wednesday morning’s official announcement that Comcast would be shedding MSNBC and five other cable networks (including CNBC) to become its own company with the revelation that far-left pundit and heroine Rachel Maddow was putting the finishing touches on a new contract for a “new five-year deal” that included a $5 million per year paycut.
It’s not all that bad for Maddow as the $5 million subtraction means her salary will still be a gargantuan and guaranteed $25 million a year to “still host just one night a week” and pop up for major events like election coverage.
Byers explained Maddow’s agent Mark Shapiro and Comcast executives were working on this at the same time “MSNBC and CNBC employees were anxiously trying to make sense of Comcast boss Brian Roberts’ decision to cast them out into the wilderness as part of a stand-alone cable channel company.”
While a paycut, at least Maddow has decided to stick around for the grift given the fact that others such as CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell and NBC’s Today co-host Hoda Kotb have decided to step down from their posts after they were reportedly invited to take pay cuts.
Maddow’s deal also puts her on the same plane as the ludicrous $75 million combined for the liberal and superficial co-hosts of ABC’s Good Morning America (Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan, and George Stephanopoulos).
Byers explained that, while it’s still “a staggering amount of money to confer upon a marquee talent while cutting costs elsewhere,” Maddow becomes, in the words of a Byers source, “more valuable than ever” in a post-Comcast MSNBC.
He also got down to brass tacks about how the public views MSNBC and its current identity that they seem to at least keep (unless, of course, the new publicly traded company sees new shareholders — wink, wink) (click “expand”):
Strategically, the MSNBC business essentially comprises just two franchises: Maddow and Morning Joe, both of which have endured a staggering ratings drop since the election...Still, NBC executives have been in this business long enough to know that this is a moment in time, and that Maddow, especially, is integral to the network’s identity
(....)
Maddow’s once-a-week deal belies her true value to the network: In addition to anchoring election coverage and other big news nights, her aura and imprimatur elevates the network’s primetime hours even when she’s not on the air. “People think she’s on more than she is,” one MSNBC insider said. Indeed, they think that because she is front and center in all of the network’s marketing collateral and creative. By retaining Maddow, the new “SpinCo” is fortifying the revenue stream of the entire bundle[.]
Byers also dished on the future of MSNBC, predicting salaries continuing to shrink for talent with “much of the backend production” being “centralized, while fewer anchors will be required to work longer hours for less money, all while being judged according to a minute-by-minute cost-benefit analysis of their performance.”
Early on, Byers predicted perhaps the biggest symbolic cut will be MSNBC “likely mov[ing] out of its historic 30 Rock headquarters, probably to Stamford, where NBCUniversal houses NBC Sports and its Olympics center, or to the Tech Center in Englewood Cliffs” in northern New Jersey, “which is already the home of CNBC.”
He also doubled down on the prediction that MSNBC will “strike an affiliate-style” deal with NBC to continue using the big network’s correspondents, but expressed doubt it would last.
In other words, buckle up, dear readers, because then all bets will be off!
