Noxema Faces All the Ratings Rage

Did you hear the one about Rachel Maddow?

On Sept. 24, the Times' Alessandra Stanley described MSNBC's newest host Rachel Maddow as "A Fresh Female Face Amid Cable Schoolboys." Today, Brian Stelter carries the torch with, "Fresh Face on Cable, Sharp Rise in Ratings." Didn't you know? Rachel Maddow's face is fresh! What does that even mean exactly? For starters, she is 35, which isn't youthful to college students, but next to cable news pundits, she's a child with candy. You can barely see any signs of aging! The L'oreal spokeswoman in waiting, however, is also "fresh" because of the way she carries herself, and her show. Less shouting, more communicating. Less rage and contempt, more well-formed opinions and eloquence. Which are all good reasons behind her ratings bonanza, yes?

Maddow, who's only been hosting MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show for 25 days, has doubled her audience in that time (from 800k to 1.7m), and beats her CNN timeslot opponent, Larry King Live, as often as not. This comes as a shock to MSNBC head Phil Griffin, who was taught by none other than Keith Olbermann (Maddow's mentor) that it can take years for a show to find its audience. It took Maddow less than a month.

Now it's just a matter of whether MSNBC will let a gay lady break through the salary glass ceiling.