Rachel Maddow has set up her next documentary project at her home network.
MSNBC has acquired Andrew Young: The Dirty Work, the second documentary from the host’s Surprise Inside production company, which focuses on the eponymous Civil Rights Movement leader who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and later became a Congressman and mayor of Atlanta.
The Matt Kay-directed film will air on MSNBC on Friday, Oct. 17 at 9 pm ET after a special edition of The Rachel Maddow Show dedicated to Young’s life and legacy.
“At a time when confrontations with the government and grassroots protests are back at the center of American political life, the civil rights movement is more than just a moral cornerstone for our country — it’s a living, breathing, practical manual for how to fight for what’s right, and win that fight, and maybe even save your own soul in the process,” Maddow said in a statement. “Andrew Young’s story is not gauzy or romantic, it’s the gritty truth of what it takes to build and sustain a winning movement. Andrew Young: The Dirty Work is about how hard it is to be a hero, and how beautiful, too.”
An extended first look at the project will debut at the network’s yearly fan event, “MSNBCLIVE ‘25: This Is Who We Are,” on Oct. 11 in New York.
Co-produced by Left/Right and executive produced by Maddow, the film will see the 93-year-old Young tell his story in his own words, from his start as a pastor to his pivotal work during the Civil Rights Movement (Young was portrayed by André Holland in the 2014 film Selma) to his debut in national politics as a U.S. representative from Georgia.
Later, Young served as an American ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter and as the mayor of Atlanta for two terms. Looking back on his career, he reflects in the film on “the dirty work,” or “the quiet, difficult labor that makes landmark change possible,” according to MSNBC.
“I was born at the right time and happened to be at the right places to be part of the Civil Rights movement that helped change America,” Andrew Young said in a statement about the film.
The film follows the first release from Maddow’s production company, From Russia With Lev, which premiered in 2024, two years after Surprise Inside launched. The film debuted to 2.2 million viewers and was later nominated for a 2025 News & Documentary Emmy award.