Rachel Maddow to pull back from hosting on MSNBC

After a five-week hiatus, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow felt the need to reintroduce herself to her viewers Monday.

“If this face does not seem familiar, if you are now quite used to seeing somebody else at this hour, hello, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Rachel,” Maddow said at the start of her show.

Apart from a few appearances during coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Maddow has been off the air working on several projects, including a movie version of her popular book and podcast Bag Man, about former Vice President Spiro Agnew, directed by Ben Stiller.

While Maddow expressed her happiness to be back in the chair she has held since 2008, she also informed viewers that beginning May 2, she will be reducing her role hosting The Rachel Maddow Show to just once a week, on Monday nights.

» READ MORE: Phillies fans will need Peacock and Apple+ this season, but they’ll get less A-Rod

“Starting in May, I’m going to be here weekly,” Maddow said. “I’m going to be here on Monday nights, again to give myself just more time to work on some of this other stuff that I’ve got cooking for MSNBC and NBC.”

“This might change,” Maddow added. “We’ll see how things go, but that’s the plan as of now, so now you know and we will never speak of it again.”

Until then, Maddow will continue to host her show nightly from Monday to Thursday. She will also return to MSNBC for special coverage of major news events, including the upcoming midterm elections. Her nightly void that will be filled by a rotating group of hosts, including Ali Velshi, who has hosted regularly in her absence.

“You should be so lucky to ever have a co-worker as great as Ali Velshi,” Maddow said. “We are incredibly lucky to have him here at MSNBC and I’m really really grateful that he helmed things so ably while I was gone.”

In addition to a film version of Bag Man, Maddow is also working on another podcast. So far, there are few details about the new project, other than it won’t involve her sitting in front of a microphone interviewing people.

“It’s got a specific arc, a specific story. It’s a reported, journalistic tale,” Maddow said back in March. “It’s not just like a jibber-jabber podcast where I chat with people and admit I haven’t done the reading.”

Maddow also said she started work on adapting another book for television, but little is also know about that project, including the title.

MSNBC isn’t the only network on the market for a new 9 p.m. host. CNN has yet to name a permanent replacement for it’s 9 p.m. slot once helmed by Chris Cuomo, who was fired in December for his role helping his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, deal with multiple accusations of sexual harassment. Chris Cuomo was also accused of sexual misconduct by a former junior colleague at another network, according to the New York Times, though it’s unclear what role the allegation played in his dismissal.