The news network formerly known as MSNBC has been rocked by an ugly battle of egos between its three biggest stars, a well-placed insider has claimed.
Joe Scarborough and wife Mika Brzezinski, who host Morning Joe, are said to be at war with Rachel Maddow, who was placed front and center for the liberal news channel’s recent rebrand to MS NOW.
Entertainment reporter Rob Shuter, who runs the popular Naughty But Nice gossip column on Substack, told the Daily Mail that Scarborough and Brzezinski consider themselves the biggest stars of the network.
Maddow has higher ratings and gets paid far more – but is also said to loathe when Scarborough and Brzezinski beat her to an exclusive and set the day’s news agenda.
‘Let’s be honest, the tension is real,’ Shuter said after speaking with a senior Morning Joe producer last week. ‘Joe and Mika run their show like a cozy morning salon, but everyone knows Rachel is the boss.
‘Her team guards that primetime territory the way Fort Knox guards gold, and that alone creates sparks. You can feel the vibes shift the second Morning Joe grabs a big story.
‘Rachel’s camp hates having the narrative shaped before their queen steps on stage.
‘They’re all under the same roof, but trust me – Rachel’s universe has gravity, and everyone else orbits around it.’
Married Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough (right) and Mika Brzezinski (left) consider themselves the true top talent at MS NOW, an insider revealed
Rachel Maddow (pictured) and her camp are fiercely defensive of her throne as the network’s top-rated host
An MS NOW spokesperson dismissed suggestions of discord between the hosts as ‘absurd’ when contacted by the Daily Mail.
Morning Joe airs between 6am and 10am each weekday – its hosts are each rumored to be paid $8 to 10million a year.
It currently draws an average of 625,000 viewers – down 42 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Nielsen data.
Meanwhile, The Rachel Maddow Show airs just once a week, at 9pm on Mondays.
A far larger viewership of 1.9 million people watch each week, Nielsen figures show, with Maddow paid an enormous $25million-a-year for drawing the network’s largest audience.
Shuter said that Maddow still has the most pull at the network, despite appearing only once a week.
He added that the friction between the competing shows is palpable inside MS NOW’s new Times Square headquarters.
‘There’s no screaming match in the hallways, but the rivalry hums like electricity,’ he explained.
‘Joe and Mika see themselves as the engine of the network. But Rachel? Rachel is the North Star.
‘When you’ve got that many egos and only one true center of gravity, it gets spicy.’
Regardless, all three hosts are ‘major players’ and ‘huge for the brand,’ Shuter noted – Morning Joe is the network’s highest-rated morning watch, and The Rachel Maddow Show is its most-viewed overall.
But, ‘they’re not playing the same game,’ he said.
‘Joe and Mika chase conversation and access; Rachel deals in accountability and depth.
‘And because she’s the one with the real editorial clout, that difference creates what I like to call “premium-grade, artisanal tension.”‘
An MS NOW spokesperson told the Daily Mail these whispers are nothing but media industry fodder.
‘Given the huge success we are having as of late, in particular, amid a nonstop news cycle and in the wake of our rebrand, it’s no wonder people are desperate to try and cause trouble,’ the spokesperson said.
‘This story is patently absurd and anyone who knows anything about the way we operate around here can confirm that.’
Scarborough (left) and Brzezinski (right) see themselves as ‘the engine of the network’
The rumored tension has persisted despite major changes to both The Rachel Maddow Show and Morning Joe.
In January, Maddow announced that she would return to hosting five nights a week for the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency, before moving to Monday nights only.
She also accepted a $5million-a-year pay cut as the network sought to cut costs before splitting from NBC News and former parent company Comcast.
As for Morning Joe, the husband-and-wife hosts have been frequently absent from the anchor desk so far this year.
An analysis by the Washington Free Beacon found that between May 27 and November 15, Scarborough and Brzezinski appeared together on just 70 of 124 shows.
Scarborough missed 29 shows while Brzezinski skipped 41, the review found.
The power couple’s shoddy attendance may be an attempt to ‘leverage their stature within the network’ ahead of the rebrand, Mediate reported this summer.
However, MS NOW enjoyed its most watched month in a year this November, after the rebrand took effect, with its overall viewership up by 23 percent – it experienced a 25 percent spike in the 25-to-54 age demographic, specifically.