If you’ve been reading this blog the last couple of months you’ve probably read your share of Rachel Maddow profiles.

There was The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, countless trades and many, many blogs. (And this is where we tell you the TVNewser profile of Maddow ran back in July!). Tuesday’s profile by Brian Stelter was the New York Times‘ most-emailed story for more than 24 hours.

Maddow is the news for good reason. As Stelter writes, Maddow “has doubled the audience” at 9pm for MSNBC; In the A25-54 demo she has beaten Larry King Live “13 of the 25 nights she has been host;” And Maddow, “has made MSNBC competitive in that time slot for the first time in a decade.”

So we decided to pay a visit to 30 Rock yesterday to talk with the man behind Maddow. Executive Producer Bill Wolff.

Wolff talks about the show’s success, sustaining that success after the election, and, given that Wolff is also MSNBC’s VP of prime time, we asked how the network is preparing should Chris Matthews decide to give up his TV show for a Senate run. Part two is after the jump:


Click continued to see Part 2…