Rachael Maddow Is Locked In A Bitter Ego Battle With These Fellow Costars

Apparently, the beef between Rachel Maddow and her costars behind the scenes at MS Now (formerly MSNBC) is even more interesting than the actual news the anchors cover on their respective shows. Maddow, who has undergone a stunning transformation over the years, is the face of the network, and entertainment reporter Rob Shuter claims she likes to throw her weight around, which irks her colleagues, especially Joe Scarborough and his wife, Mika Brzezinski, who host "Morning Joe."

Shuter told the Daily Mail in December 2025 that Maddow doesn't like to be one-upped by Scarborough and Brzesinski, especially when it comes to the top news stories. "You can feel the vibes shift the second 'Morning Joe' grabs a big story," Shuter alleged. "Rachel's camp hates having the narrative shaped before their queen steps on stage." Shuter said there hasn't been a verbal fallout just yet, but that the "rivalry hums like electricity," a given when you have numerous people with big egos vying for the top story. A spokesperson for MS Now decried Shuter's allegations, calling them "patently absurd."

While Maddow may or may not be in a bitter ego battle with some of her costars, she did speak out against her own network when MS Now let some of its anchors go in February 2025 amid some company restructuring. Joy Reid and Katie Phang both lost their slots, with Maddow voicing her disagreement on air. "I will tell you it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we've got two — count them, two — non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows," she said, per the Daily Beast. "That feels indefensible, and I do not defend it."

At the beginning of 2025, MS Now host Lawrence O'Donnell joined Rachel Maddow to cover President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office. O'Donnell, who has weathered plenty of tragedies during his career, took a week off amid his and Maddow's daily coverage of Trump's shenanigans, citing fatigue from the relentless news cycle. One week of leave turned into two, and speculation was rife that the longtime MS Now host was playing hardball to get the same pay as Maddow.

An insider told The Sun that O'Donnell had been renegotiating his contract with the network and that he wanted Maddow's $25 million deal. "What he wants is what internally everyone's calling 'The Rachel Maddow Deal,'" the insider disclosed. "That's working about one day a week and recording a podcast, which will never happen again." They explained that the current economy simply doesn't allow for that kind of salary and that Maddow got lucky with her "crazy, silly contract." Something many might not know about Maddow, however, is that she used to take home $30 million annually, but took a $5 million pay cut in late 2024 amid the network's financial struggles.

As rumors swirled that O'Donnell was staying away from work in an effort to wrangle more money from the network, he took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify that his second week off had not been planned. "My week off turned into 2 weeks after I picked up an infection. Expect to be back @TheLastWord next week," he penned. With that, the scuttlebutt was temporarily laid to rest.