Rachel Maddow has always wanted her own TV show. Well now she has it, as the new host of a prime-time political hour on MSNBC.

"This is great; getting a regular cable show is something I’ve wanted," Maddow told The New York Times.

The cable news network is shaking up its prime-time programming lineup, the Times reports, removing the long-time host Dan Abrams from his 9 PM ET program and replacing him with Maddow, a favored political commentator for the channel. Maddow will begin her program September 8.

That start date, according to network president Phil Griffin, "will be the final leg of the political race this year.” He added, “We’re making that Rachel’s debut."

Maddow, who enters a media arena dominated by male personalities, told the Times that the intense presidential race will remain the focus of her show throughout the election, and, most likely, the first 100 days of the new administration – whoever ends up in the White House. The show likely will take the shape of a more general news program after “this political Christmas” ends, Maddow added.

As for being branded another partisan voice from the left, Maddow — also a host on Air America — said she was no more partisan than any other host in cable news.

“I am who I am," she said, dismissing forthcoming criticism from the Republican right. "Everybody likes to work the refs to make their own kind of political hay."

MSNBC has used Maddow frequently both as a guest and as a substitute for the network’s most popular host, Keith Olbermann. The channel reportedly had been trying to find a way to greater capitalize on Olbermann’s popularity. A Maddow program is expected to be a closer ideological fit with Olbermann’s.

"No, I have no idea who will start guest hosting ‘Countdown.’ Took me five years to find her," Olbermann wrote on his Daily Kos blog in leaking the news. "Dammit! Why didn’t I think of this! She can’t be the guest host anymore! I knew I’d forgotten something!"