Maddow on MSNBC’s ratings surge: People are looking for answers

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow says she’s not sure why her show is suddenly trouncing Fox News in the ratings.

“It’s hard to understand why these things happen, but it’s nice,” she told host Stephen Colbert on CBS’s “The Late Show” on Monday night.

Maddow said her show hasn’t changed its approach to the news, but viewers’ appetite for political coverage has changed since President Trump’s inauguration.

“I do cable news in kind of a weird way. We haven’t changed how we do the show at all. It just seems like more people want that now,” she said.

{mosads}Maddow has held MSNBC’s 9 p.m. time slot since premiering in 2008, facing off for most of that time with Fox News’s “The Kelly File,” hosted by now-NBC host Megyn Kelly. Kelly departed the network in January for her new role at NBC, and was replaced in the time slot for a time by Tucker Carlson.

In recent weeks, Maddow’s show surpassed Fox News overall and within the coveted 25- to 54-year-old demographic.

“I’m assuming people will go back to not wanting it,” Maddow joked. “And I’ll still be stuck.”

Maddow credits her explanations of the news for her ratings success over the years.

“The most important thing I can do right now is just try to explain stuff,” Maddow said. “Here’s what has happened, here’s why we believe it to be true, here’s why it seems important.”