JOURNALIST
RACHEL MADDOW
It's been almost as big a year for Rachel Maddow as it's been for the political world she covers in her nightly MSNBC show. The 35-year-old Rhodes scholar, a TV novice but veteran radio commentator (with Air America since its 2004 founding), seems to be having the time of her life. "I think of this as a chance to talk about the news on TV for an hour each day," she told the Los Angeles Times. "How awesome is that?"Pretty awesome indeed, according to the audience response: Hers was the most successful launch of a new show on MSNBC, doubling that channel's viewership in her time slot from 800,000 to 1.7 million viewers. "I'm a big lesbian who looks like a man," she told one interviewer. "I am not, like, Anchor Babe, and I'm never gonna be."
