The critics weigh in on the Rachel Maddow Show (and they like it!)

[NYCGirl]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/msnbc/maddow_premiere_postmortem_93975.asp#more

The Rachel Maddow Show premiered last night on MSNBC at 9pmET. Her first guest — the prior hour's anchor, Keith Olbermann. Also on the show — her sometimes-foil on MSNBC political nights Pat Buchanan (for what looks to be a regular segment, "It's Pat"). Here's some reaction from around the web:

• TV Squad's Allison Waldman, who describes the show as a Countdown "spin-off," had high praise for Maddow. "Rachel Maddow is very smart — a Rhodes scholar — and you can hear that in her interviewing style. She packs a question with information," she wrote. She also discussed the opening segment of the show, "Talk Me Down." "It's Rachel's commentary/blog/editorial about a specific topic of note to her," she writes. "It's her show, so she gets to choose. She does her spiel, then invites a guest to 'talk her down.'"

• Roger Catlin writes for the Hartford Courant that the "best part," of the show featured Buchanan. "Together the two tangled enough on issues so that it allowed her to articulate her positions most cogently," he writes. "When it was over, Maddow wasn't mad or even riled up. She thanked Buchanan, whom she kept calling 'my fake uncle.'" He also notes Maddow is, "not nearly as grating as Olbermann."

• Megan Carpentier live-blogged the premiere for Jezebel, and had some critique for the end of the show. "Kent is a little annoying," she writes of Kent Jones, who was the last guest, on to discuss pop culture. But she also noted a favorite line of the night from Maddow: "Unlike chocolate and peanut butter, church and state are not two great tastes that go great together."

> Update: The premiere of Maddow's show finished in 2nd place in cable news at 9pmET, beating CNN's Larry King Live in both Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo (behind FNC's Hannity & Colmes).

[Clcal422]

1. Her Show is as Good as Keiths......

Having back to back excellent shows is great
I especially loved her taking on Pat last night 
she can hold her own and I really like it 
Glad she got her own show 
will be very successful 

[classof56]

2. Rachel is awesome. I'm so glad she has her own show!

She's an incredibly intelligent, insightful, articulate woman who does wonderful interviews and doesn't back down from the truth. That's what scares the hell out of her detractors, mainly insecure non-intellectual males who can't see beyond the neocon blinders they wear.

Long may she wave!

[aimee]

3. I watch her new program on MSNBC.com....

We don't get this network on our Direct TV line up, but I watch it every night (2 so far) after they have had time to post the segments on the website... She is really "good" isn't she at holding some "feet to the fire"... Thanks for sharing this new show... I just wanted to let me people know that she can also be viewed on the web...

Aimee

[Larkspur]

4. Rachel is great and am glad she has Kent Jones on with her again

I love Kent Jones too. Wish he'd team up with Stephen Colbert with his Lawton Smalls "Ace reporter from Planet Bush" character.

[protect our future]

5. I saw Larry King, the rerun, in the wee hours of the morning.

Joy Behar (from The View) was a guest, and she REALLY knew her stuff. She nailed it in so many ways, in language that must have made sense to low information voters and to those who watch The View. I'm hoping CNN will do another rerun of that show over the weekend.

Rachel's show was fantastic and I can hardly wait to see what she'll do next.