Rachel Maddow is not like other cable news hosts. A self-described butch lesbian with short hair and black-rimmed glasses, off-camera she resembles a young Ira Glass more than the helmet-headed anchoresses and Fox fembots who populate television news. Doing the press rounds when MSNBC first announced her show in August, she'd show up to interviews looking like, she says, a 14-year-old boy in puffy Samantha Ronson sneakers with iPod headphones dangling from her ears--but then she'd easily segue into an informed foreign- policy or economic discussion that ended with a Daily Show--worthy punch line. Her resumè is similarly unexpected: A Rhodes scholar and an Oxford Ph.D., she's done stints as an AIDS activist, barista, landscaper, Air America host, and mascot in an inflatable calculator suit. She's a civics geek who reads comic books, goes to monster-truck rallies, likes to fish, calls herself an amateur mixologist of classic cocktails, and even Twitters.
There's something about the mix of personal details that is--to a young, educated, left-leaning, cosmopolitan audience--instantly recognizable. As one New York acolyte told me, She is more like one of my friends than anyone else on television. And her ratings have been astounding, especially in the coveted 25-to-54-year-old demographic. Maddow averaged a higher rating with that group than Larry King Live for thirteen of the first 25 nights she was on the air, enabling the network to out-rate CNN in that time slot for the first time. It's an impressive feat, even given the fact that the show started two months before the election when political interest was at a fever pitch.
You come out of the gate as fast as she came out, it gives me incredible excitement, thunders MSNBC president Phil Griffin. We are stronger than we've been in twelve years. We have more swagger today than we have ever had. It's because of Rachel. And trust me. The other guys see it. They are watching. And they are scared.
Over drinks after her show at one of her regular spots, the St. Regis's red-velvety old-man bar, Maddow seems as surprised as anyone by her success. It's like winning an ego lottery, she says. Scrubbed clean of the makeup she wears on television, her features are finer and more feminine, set with big, liquid brown eyes. She finds it hilarious that anyone could think she's cool. I'm such an old man! Maybe it's geek chic, I don't know.