Rachel Maddow announces a Mondays-only schedule, starting in May

Deadline

Maddow returned from her months-long hiatus Monday night by confirming previous reports that she would be scaling back her nightly show to once a week. For the rest of April, Maddow said she will host The Rachel Maddow Show Monday through Thursday. But starting in May, she'll only host on Mondays, with rotating hosts filling in for the rest of the week, including long-time fill-in Ali Velshi. “This might change….We will see how things go, but that is the plan as of now," she said. When Maddow signed a new contract last year, there were multiple reports that she had planned to only host her show once a week while concentrating on other projects. On Monday, Maddow said while she is shifting to a weekly schedule, she doesn't plan to take another long hiatus. “One of the things I realized to my surprise is that I actually don’t need another hiatus," she said. "This one was great. But I think I only needed the one. I still have these other irons in the fire, all these other things I am working on that I want to bring to fruition.” Maddow's viewership has fallen during her hiatus, so it remains to be seen if the once-a-week format can help MSNBC's 9 p.m. ET timeslot for the rest of the week.