Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, Associated Press

Rachel Maddow on set photo: Michael S. Wirtz/MCT via Detroit Free Press

Although her show still trails ratings leader Sean Hannity on Fox News and Larry King on CNN, it did manage to edge out CNN's Larry King Live twice during its second week on the air, Associated Press reports.

That counts as a ratings win for the perennially low-rated MSNBC.

AP's television writer David Bauder observes,

She has more than doubled the audience that MSNBC had been getting in the time slot, according to Nielsen Media Research, and is keeping much of the audience that watches Olbermann.

Naysayers told MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin that Maddow would be too much like Olbermann, and there was a risk in turning his prime-time lineup completely over to one political point of view.

Instead, Maddow is something of a happy warrior compared to Olbermann's increasingly dark prince. The Rhodes Scholar can lap almost anyone intellectually without making you hate her for doing it.

The Inquirer's John Timpane explains part of her charm -- and her difference from Olbermann:

Her delivery is talk-radio Americana-meets-Oxford. Prodigiously articulate, she can talk at lightning pace with argumentative precision and humor. Argument is one of her chief loves: "I revel in pointing out what's wrong with bad arguments, and I take great creative and intellectual satisfaction in creating good new ones." She also relishes humor; an amused grin is seldom off her face.

Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, says, "Maddow is smart and surgically incisive -- yet she doesn't take herself overly seriously. ... She enjoys the 'gotcha' aspect less than sifting through the info, throwing up her hands, and saying, 'Can you believe this?' "

Both features retell the "instant legend" of Maddow's entry into radio.

Bauder's profile for AP focuses on the odd-couple pairing of Maddow with right-wing pundit and MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan:

To a certain extent, Maddow credits Buchanan with giving her television career a push. A few years ago when Buchanan hosted a show at MSNBC, he remembered her and sought her out for work.

"I like debating things with Pat," Maddow said. "He's funny and quick and intellectually coherent, even when his views are totally toxic."

The semi-regular "It's Pat" feature on Maddow's show presents Buchanan as Maddow's "fake uncle," and gives him a fair opportunity to present his diametrically opposed viewpoints on a given issue.

That willingness to listen to other views is one of many parts of her hour that distinguishes it from Olbermann's lead-in. Maddow clearly wants to have a discussion with those who are likely to disagree with her -- something Olbermann avoids.

Another of the regular features she introduced on the show's premier is "Talk me down" in which she at least tries to find someone who will present a different view of something that concerns her.

But she's had trouble in the first weeks booking right wing spokespeople and pundits other than Buchanan -- who is paid to do so by the network.

GOP and McCain officials declined requests to appear on Maddow's show until Friday night when the McCain campaign finally agreed to send its "senior policy analyst" Nancy Photenhauer to Maddow's show -- which is is probably the only cable news show she hadn't  already been on multiple times.

And it turned out to be a friendly interview. (See video on MSNBC's site.)

Source: That voice, that brain, that face | Philadelphia Inquirer
Odd couple: Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan; MSNBC happy with ratings improvement | Newsday (AP)