"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.

"I'm pinching myself," said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, who used to caution that it "takes two or three years for a show to find its audience." That was certainly true for Keith Olbermann, whose five-year-old "Countdown" program at 8 p.m. (which leads into Ms. Maddow’s program) now beats CNN in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic segment every evening.

Mr. Griffin said that Ms. Maddow's advantages included her regular appearances on "Countdown" and her popularity on the Internet, where, he said, "word spread like wildfire" about her new show. Ms. Maddow, a former AIDS activist, was also presumably helped by her four years on the Air America radio network.

Last update: 10-23-2008 14:48