Rachel Maddow’s former mentor has hit out at the MSNBC host after she reportedly renewed her contract for $25 million a year.
Keith Olbermann, whom Maddow has previously credited with starting her television career, claimed that his former protege had abandoned her principles for her lofty salary.
Maddow is reported to have negotiated a $25 million salary in a five-year deal with MSNBC for a weekly show, even though her viewership has plummeted following Donald Trump’s election win earlier this month.
Olbermann, who hosted Countdown with Keith Olbermann for eight years until 2011, made the remark after a social media user suggested that MSNBC, a liberal network, might have to “change its identity” if sold off by parent company Comcast.
They added: “Or maybe [Rachel Maddow] should leave and build a new operation.”
Olbermann replied: “She just re-signed for $25 million. If you think she’d do anything for principle, I’ll light a candle for you.”
While MSNBC is not for sale, it is being spun off from Comcast’s NBCUniversal cable television arm, alongside CNBC, USA, E!, Syfy and the Golf Channel.
Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla founder, had joked that he could buy the network after news of its planned separation from NBCUniversal circulated online.
An unnamed executive told The Ankler that the network agreed to the deal because “no one else can do what she does” and “you can’t build a brand like it overnight”.
Mr Musk publicly mused about cancelling Maddow’s contract and cancelling her five-year deal if he bought MSNBC from Comcast.
The broadcaster, who hosts her self-titled The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday nights, has long been criticised for the high salaries she commands.
Her reported $25 million would represent a pay cut since 2021, when she agreed to a $30 million-a-year-deal while reducing her commitments from five days a week to a weekly show.
“They’re really taking a gamble there,” Jeffrey Sconce, a professor at Northwestern University, said at the time.
“I’m kind of surprised that they are willing to pay that much to go from five nights a week to once a week.”
A network source claimed the reported $25 million salary was inaccurate.
Olbermann and Maddow were once close, with the 65-year-old claiming to have hired Maddow as a contributor “out of my own pocket” because the network refused to pay her enough.
He was eventually dropped from the network after donating to multiple political campaigns and speculating that his then-boss, Jeff Zucker, was about to be sacked by Comcast.
Maddow paid tribute to Olbermann after his departure, telling viewers: “I wouldn’t have this show without Keith directly nudging the network to give me a try.”
However, relations between the pair since appear to have soured.
Olbermann claimed in March that he was in talks with executives to take over Maddow’s 9pm slot while she took a hiatus, but she stepped in to veto his appointment.
“I offered to have her production company ‘produce’ the show. Would give her some proxy control and a f---kton of money but she and [former MSNBC boss] Phil Griffin refused,” he told the Daily Beast.
MSNBC declined to comment when approached by the news outlet at the time.
Olbermann has previously criticised Maddow because she did not call for the sacking of Kristen Welker, the Meet the Press host, in February.
He was among several liberal commentators who believed Welker should not have caveated her remarks.
“For [Maddow] to have any credibility going forward, she has to risk $1 for once in her life and publicly demand this,” he claimed.