MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will not be hosting this week with Alex Wagner taking on presenting duties in her absence.
Maddow, who hosts The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday evenings, has also had to postpone a sold-out appearance at the Boulder Theater in Colorado.
Viewers may be wondering where the presenter is.
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Maddow announced via a post on X, formerly Twitter, that she has been diagnosed with COVID and won’t return to normal duties until next week.
Posting on Monday evening, Maddow wrote: “Tonight’s 9pm Eastern MSNBC hour is being very ably helmed by the very very very able@alexwagner
“I’m still positive for COVID but getting better fast. Will see you next week!”
Maddow also took the time to thank her colleagues for attending to her presenting duties, saying “Thank you to Alex and everyone on her show and mine for all the hard work it takes to scramble a new host on short notice, and thanks to everyone for the well-wishes.”
MSNBC legal analyst Barb McQuade wrote in response: “The show is in good hands, but get well soon!”
Alex Wagner, host of Alex Wagner Tonight, which airs from Tuesday through Friday, and Maddow’s replacement this week, also wrote: “FEEL BETTER WE NEED YOU.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of positive COVID test results from U.S. reporting laboratories in the week ended October 21, 2023, was 8.7 percent, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points from the previous week.
While rates were as low as 5.7 percent in some states, in others they were almost 10 percentage points higher. In Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Colorado, positive rates reached 14 percent.
COVID-19 hospitalizations went up over the summer, but have started to drop in recent weeks.
Rachel Maddow joined MSNBC as a political analyst in 2008. She was recently confronted at an event in New York, where a member of the audience called her a “warmonger.”
The heckler said that Maddow was at the event to get “Israel wrong, yet again, just like you got 2016 wrong.” The comments received jeers from the crowd.
Maddow had been on-stage with actor Ben Stiller, on Tuesday, October 17 at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center in New York City. Maddow was interrupted multiple times by hecklers voicing their disdain against the conflict in the Middle East.
According to recent Nielsen ratings, The Rachel Maddow Show was America’s most-watched primetime cable news program for two quarters in a row. Averaging 2.6 million total viewers, it was the most-watched primetime program, excluding sports, on all of cable in the third quarter of 2023.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.