And the Real Winner of the Election Season Is ...

Photo of Rachel Maddow from The New York Times

MSNBC/Air America's Rachel Maddow. She struck while the iron was mighty hot and has benefited tenfold.

From The New York Times:

Rachel Maddow, a woman who does not own a television set, has done something that is virtually unheard of: she has doubled the audience for a cable news channel’s 9 p.m. hour in a matter of days.

More important for her bosses at MSNBC is that “The Rachel Maddow Show,” her left-leaning news and commentary program, has averaged a higher rating among 25- to 54-year-olds than “Larry King Live” on CNN for 13 of the 25 nights she has been host. While the average total audience of her program remains slightly smaller than that of Mr. King’s, Ms. Maddow, 35, has made MSNBC competitive in that time slot for the first time in a decade. The channel at that hour has an average viewership of 1.7 million since she started on Sept. 8, compared with 800,000 before.

Couldn't have happened to a better woman. Or Power Lesbian. Can't have too many of those. Maddow's secret power is "likability" and "smarts."

Maddow Advances; Oprah, Sick of Self?

Dan Abrams out. Rachel Maddow in. Lord, MSNBC. Why did that take so long? Abrams gave it the old college try and was sometimes not half bad, but every now and then he actually made me miss Joe Scarborough and that's not a good thing.

Sayeth The Huffington Post:

Just in time for the closing rush of the presidential election, MSNBC is shaking up its prime-time programming lineup, removing the long-time host -- and one-time general manager of the network -- Dan Abrams from his 9 p.m. program and replacing him with Rachel Maddow, who has emerged as a favored political commentator for the all-news cable channel.

The moves, which were confirmed by MSNBC executives Tuesday, are expected to be finalized by Wednesday, with Mr. Abrams's last program on Thursday. After MSNBC's extensive coverage of the two political conventions during the next two weeks, Ms. Maddow will begin her program on Sept. 8.

MSNBC is highlighting the date, 9/8/08, connecting it to the start of the Olympics on 8/8/08, as a way to signal what the network's president, Phil Griffin, said "will be the final leg of the political race this year." He added, "We making that Rachel's debut."

Mr. Abrams, who is well liked at MSNBC, is expected to remain at both that network and at NBC News, where he is the chief legal correspondent. He will also serve as an anchor during some of MSNBC's daytime coverage, as well as a substitute host on NBC's "Today" show, Mr. Griffin said.

Maddow is smart, funny and representing herself (and her peeps) nicely. And someone finally convinced her to wear "some" lipstick. I realize lipstick is a superficial thing and Maddow isn't that sort of woman, but this is TV. Even the dudes wear make up. It's part of the uniform. As long as it's subtle and they don't try to doll her up like Dolly Parton she should be cool.

Rock on you crazy liberal.

Also, The New York Post is reporting that the Big "O" -- Oprah Winfrey, not Barack Obama -- is considering stopping her narcissistic reign as the sole cover model of her O Magazine.

But Oprah's peeps are denying any such thing:

Oprah Winfrey is super-busy, so it's no surprise she'd want to delegate her more tedious duties. One source said, "Oprah has told the editors at O magazine she's tired of being on the cover every month. It's a pain. It takes a lot of time and energy and she's sick of it. She's given them six months to figure out what to do without her." Meanwhile, the magazine's newsstand sales are down 17 percent from last year and circulation is down 1.7 percent. A rep for the monthly said, "Oprah Winfrey has appeared on the cover of O . . . since its launch in 2000, and she will continue to do so. In fact, shoots for three upcoming covers will take place in early September."

Her ego is still that huge. She wants, needs to be on the cover, so stop hating if she's so flipping rich she can put herself on the cover of her own mag and sell self-help and diet tips to the world.