Exclusive Rachel Maddow Interview Part 1: On Ratings, Reckless Romney, and More

Prior to our interview, TRMS Executive Producer Bill Wolff walked me through the paces of the program’s showprep, some of which centers around a massive handwritten whiteboard. One of Rachel’s little handwritten notes on the board is about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, but it casually refers to him simply as “Governor Ultrasound,” a moniker she uses for him on the show. That’s not a put-on, that’s what she really calls him, that’s how he is known around the office. The Rachel Maddow you get on TV is absolutely authentic.

That show prep begins at around noon, as Wolff lists possible stories on that white board, while Rachel reads and writes in her office. From about 2 to 3 pm, Rachel and her staff go over the whiteboard, making notes and narrowing down or combining the stories into the six or seven segments you see on the show. From three on, Rachel and the show’s writers and producers put the show together, keeping an eye out for late developments like Monday’s Romney hidden video bombshell that throws the earlier plan out the window.

Both Rachel and Wolff are quick to share credit with the staff, who are charged with maintaining TRMS’ distinctive Maddowian voice, which they accomplish seamlessly. Rachel does have a hand in all of the writing, and writes several complete segments a week, but her staff makes it seem, to the viewer, as if she has written and polished every tile in the mosaic of stories they construct every night.