In the midst of a huge ratings surge, MSNBC star anchor Rachel Maddow told TheWrap that she purposely chose to cover the White House in a very old-fashioned Hollywood sort of way instead of focusing on Donald Trump’s tweets. But, the 43-year-old native Californian does much more than that. On most nights during the first few minutes of her “Rachel Maddow Show,” she takes her viewers on an often jaw-dropping journey through history apropos to today’s headlines. These days, the former Rhodes Scholar will also inform her audience of interesting and in-depth news centering around Donald Trump, his associates, his administration, and Russian characters often not seen or reported elsewhere.

Background check please

For 45 straight months, Rachel Maddow has beaten CNN’s regularly scheduled programming. She explained that when Trump surrogates lie, the MSNBC network will not go to them for factual information. She added that it was helpful for them to stop paying attention to what the administration is saying and seek out what they are actually doing. Even her colleague Mika Brzezinski from “Morning Joe” has declared she does not want White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway appearing on her show because she was not credible. Lately, with all the talk about Russia, Rachel Maddow has been bringing viewers’ attention to some Russian players, in regard to money trails and how who is connected to whom.

A star is born

“The Rachel Maddow Show” joins a growing list of other programs seeing some Nielson momentum thanks to Donald Trump and outdraws CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the 9:00 p.m. hour. Last month, Maddow’s show attracted an average 2.3 million viewers every night. Wedged between “All in With Chris Hayes” and “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” all three nightly news line-ups are enjoying ratings growth rivaling their CNN and Fox News counterparts. Even former Peacock newsman Brian Williams has seen a boost of 169 percent on his “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams,” which also airs on MSNBC weeknights at 11:00 p.m.