On the heels of hiring The Nation editor Chris Hayes and negotiating with Al Sharpton for anchoring gigs, MSNBC has locked up another one of its prominent liberal voices for a new deal: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rachel Maddow will be reupping with the Lean Forward network. The specific details of her extended contract seem scant for the moment, but it was reported as "a new multi-year deal that will keep the primetime host at the cable news network well beyond the 2012 presidential election." Spurned anchor Keith Olbermann, who's now hosting Countdown on Current TV, had been trying to lure Maddow to the more progressive--but smaller--network, wrote the Reporter.

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Erik Hayden