Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

Tuesday morning’s MSNBC panel at the TCA began with the news that Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show, has signed a multi-year contract continue doing her show for MSNBC. The openly gay host — who said that growing up as a lesbian in San Francisco during the AIDS crisis whetted her interest in public policy because policy decisions either saved people’s lives or killed them — declined to specify the length of the contract, but described it as “multi-year” and said after the session that it did not include any changes in her role at MSNBC but just called for her to “do what I do for more years.”