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Two weeks after his abrupt exit from MSNBC, Keith Olbermann has landed at Al Gore’s Current Media. Because of Olbermann’s liberal leanings, Current TV had been rumored as a potential future home, but he had hinted about doing something more entrepreneurial after his abrupt exit from MSNBC on Jan 21.
On Current TV, Olbermann will host an hourlong weekday primetime show, set to launch in late spring. Additionally, he will have an equity stake in Current Media and will serve as Current TV’s Chief News Officer, providing “guidance” to the cable network’s news, commentary and documentary programming. “Nothing is more vital to a free America than a free media, and nothing is more vital to my concept of a free media than news produced independently of corporate interference,” said Olbermann. He said the new show for Current will be an “improved, amplified and stronger version” of his previous show on MSNBC.
Olbermann’s arrival is sure to raise the profile of struggling Current TV but will be a big step down in visibility for MSNBC’s former flagship host. After five years, Current TV is not even rated yet, which usually means that a network’s owners don’t want people to know how few viewers watch it. It’s primetime viewership is estimated to be 20,000, compared to the average of 1 million who tuned in to Olbermann’s MSNBC show last year. Current TV is available in 60-65 million homes in the U.S. but on the digital tier only. MSNBC, on the other hand, is a basic cable available in analog in 85 million homes. Current started off with a slate of user-generated short-form videos but, after not getting much traction, last summer decided to undergo a format change to full-length unscripted series.
Bringing Olbermann on board would also bring the channel to Gore’s original vision. Word is when he first approached investors about buying the network, then NewsWorld International, 7 years ago, Gore was planning to turn it into a liberal-skewing version of Fox News Channel. Over the past 7 years, that’s what MSNBC has evolved to be.
Current TV brass said they don’t intend to build a political news/commentary network around Olbermann to compete against Fox News, CNN and MSNBC but will unveil their plans for the future of the channel at its upfront presentation tomorrow.
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HOORAH. Keith back on the air with NO CORPORATE PARENT.
Ok, Murdoch-Trolls, have at it! Tell us all how this is going to be a huge-massive failure by the evil, Liberal-Socialist-Marxist
Islamofascist-Atheist-Tolitarian-Obama machine and how only Sarah Palin can save us all!
What a fuckhead.
Well, yeah, that’s what we “Murdoch Trolls” think because it’s true. Olby’s going back on the air with literally 1/100th his previous audience (I bet Internet-only Pajamas TV has more viewers). The problem here is that there are probably some original talents at this dinky network who want to do something genuinely different and they are all going to have their hopes dashed and their faces ground into the earth by Olberman’s swollen ego. More power to Olby, I say!
The Times being bought by a Mexican: Huffington being bought by AOL; Newsweek being sold for a dollar; Olby jumping to a start-up: The left-wing media, one by one, is desperately jumping off a cliff.
Brilliant comment. Seven years ago conserva-twits were bragging that “Nobody will watch left-leaning media.” Now seven years later an entire network has been converterd to a leftist-media organ with another set to go the same way, the Huffington Post has been BOUGHT for over 300 million. Meanwhile Glenn Beck is –predictably– fading back into obscurity.
So, what world do you live in where the boldest liberal voice on the net being bought for a third of a billion dollars somehow counts as “desperately jumping off a cliff.”
Conservatives live in their own little world. What a shame it isn’t Planet Easrth.
Ok. It is going to be a huge-massive failure by the evil, Liberal-Socialist-Marxist
Islamofascist-Atheist-Tolitarian-Obama machine.
What we need is really an unfettered news and information source,truthfull. Olbermann embodies that.
How many households is Current in? I know its on DTV; it is really bad television. Just a notch about Free Speech TV. I guess Olbermann will bring something, the question is, will anyone take the time and make the effort to find Current. I think this will fail. Chauncy’s prediction.
so much for them being a young adult channel. olbermann is 50+ and Current is supposed to super-serve the 18-34 demo. please explain this decision because i clearly don’t understand.
Does FOX news serve the 18-34 demo? I don’t think so. That demo gets their news off of Ipad and the internet not TV. The 18-34 demo is more suited for the Huffington Post than TV.
Countdown skewed younger than any cable news show except Rachel. While plenty of 50+ viewers watched him, hundreds of thousands of 18-34s did as well.
He’s used to 20-30 times the younger viewership that Current has.
I can see how baby boomers watching the same news program as you is a turnoff. They also get to have prescription drugs and now, thanks to medical marijuana, they hog all the good weed too. It isn’t fair!
Good news bad news…Keith is employed…what channel is Current TV?
Yeah for Keith, I am a real big fan, but how do I find Current TV?
and that’s the last we’ll hear of Olbermann until he resurfaces as a Sports Center host to reinvent his career.
Loser. Sounds like Air America retread. Glad he got an equity stake in nothing.
Doesn’t Comcast own a 10% stake in Current TV? and wasn’t Comcast the reason Olbermann was booted from MSNBC? they could have just left him on MSNBC and saved everyone a bunch of time.
Hope he bombs!
Not many people were watching MSNBC until Olbermann came aboard. And how many millions of people signed up for Sirius/XM radio solely because of Howard Stern? It only takes one person to make a difference.
Look at how every “niche” channel has at least one “Signature Show” The two comedy channels that eventually became Comedy Central were known for nothing more than re-running terrible movies until South Park came along. The Discovery Channel was only watched for one week a year until Mythbusters. Food Channel has Rachel Ray. Headline News has Nancy Grace.
Hell, nobody was watching Fox News until 1998, after going on the air in 1996.
and Olbermann was never heard from again…
Yea! I already have and indeed watch Current TV, so this gives me even more reason. Can’t wait!
I liked them, until they got rid of Super News. If they were to bring that back in a weekly show, along with Keith they’d have the start of something solid.
Thank you. It’s always sunny in Phoenix, Arizona but this brightened my day. It’s exactly where Keith Olbermann belongs: obscurity. What a creep. But Chief NEWS Officer? How ’bout Minister of Propaganda? That’s much more fitting title.
I aure hope Al Gore is staying bundled up this winter… oh wait a minute… he just purchased an energy consuming, 6,500 sq. foot home in Montecito, CA that boasts 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, a large pool house and 6 fireplaces. Typical limousine liberals…
The $8.875M luxury getaway in Montecito, CA was likely paid for by his work of fiction “An Inconvenient Truth” and that Nobel Peace Prize farce. What a scam this guy pulled.
Pathetic that anyone supports him.
Sounds jealous.
I love this. This is going to be a funny joke in about 3 years. I guarantee you this will end in a lawsuit.
Current was interesting, but stinks. Olbermann just stinks.
Wow – I didn’t think it was possible to have a primetime show with a smaller audience than MSNBC. Congrats Keith – you’ve pulled it off. You now have fewer people watchign you then when you were doing Sports at KTLA!
“Not many people were watching MSNBC until Olbermann came aboard…”
And not many people were watching MSNBC after he came aboard.
As someone that considers himself a Libertarian, that leans to the right, I’d be sincerely interested to know why the more left leaning/”Keith Fans” on this site don’t address the objective fact that Keith’s ratings on MSNBC made him, at best, “the tallest midget” relative to ratings.
I’m asking (really)…
Is it because you assume that most of the millions of viewers that DO watch the competing programs/networks, particularly Fox, are, by definition, some form of retarded that makes those numbers invalid?
Otherwise, just doing a ratings comparison on any day, for the past years (all the years Keith was on MSNBC) would make it seem silly to call his ratings anything but pathetic.
Before you start screaming about Drudge trolls, I have this site bookmarked and haven’t watched Fox for years.
I’m just sincerely curious about why his ACTUAL ratings/viewers never seem to be factored into the discussion.
I could be wrong (and frequently am), but I thought I read that the programs that replaced him are doing no worse than he was, ratings wise?
He had MSNBC’s highest rated show. The highest rated show, on ANY network, will make that network more money than their other shows. Therefore, while he did indeed have smaller ratings when compared to FOX News, etc., he had the most on MSNBC. He obviously made them money, which is the point of all television. So to count him out is pretty unfair; I don’t see you hosting a show on any network, let alone pulling in the highest ratings for said network.
If Keith made money, he’d still be employed by MSNBC. Pittsburgh is right here, this is career suicide.
Here’s the thing, PB. It’s not all about ratings. Some people would like someone who will tell the truth. Some reject the lies that Rupert Murdoch Empire shovels on an hourly basis.
Yes, Fox News is the biggest, because their audience of geriatrics (many of whom fought in the Civil War — for the South doesn’t watch anything else.
CNN and MSNBC have to compete with CBS, NBC, ABC, and, er, FOX’ entertainment channel for viewers. Of course, if you DO wanna talk ratings, it’s worth noting that the Nightly newsscsts on the Big 3 networks regularly beat any show on Fox.
Yeah, Pittsburgh Bob, a million plus viewers @ MSNBC is “no one.”
It’s cable, folks, it’s a new day. Gore has publicly stated that Current is profitable. You don’t have to be number one in the race to make money in cable…..we’re not broadcasting anymore but narrowcasting, and there is money to be made.
If we’re seriously putting our political leanings aside (left leaning libertarian here) then it’s all about the Benjamins, and making money is making money.
Olbermann gets a platform without a corporate puppet hand up his ass. Current is likely to see at a sizeable bump in ratings…perhaps enough to qualify for ratings points – once KO airs and is getting a lot of buzz now, the kind of buzz that Keith’s salary invested in ads couldn’t buy. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
Now excuse me, I have to down a few shots with Bill Burns dahntahn…..
“I’m asking (really)…
Is it because you assume that most of the millions of viewers that DO watch the competing programs/networks, particularly Fox, are, by definition, some form of retarded that makes those numbers invalid?”
Well, “retarded” is way over the top, not to mention innappropriate. Since one would think that fans of Beck and Palin would be loyal Fox watchers however, there is a correlation in thinking that some of these viewers are shall we say, “a bit dim” or “easily influenced”.
I’m not in the television business, so I could care less what the ratings are. I watch what I like and what I believe is the most honest. There are terrific musical groups that don’t sell a lot of records… there’s great films that don’t make big box office… and whether KO has “midget” ratings compared to other prime time shows, a million people is still a million people. He has an audience. And a passionate one. Biggest isn’t always the best.
Awful lot of righties on an entertainment website, are there people who get paid to come on and rabble rouse? Whether it’s here, Huff Post or anywhere you read about Olbermann, there’s all sorts of vitriol about insignificant he is. Yet all these people are reading the articles and commenting about him…
Judging from the outpouring of “trollification” from the Right, K.O. is obviously the most dangerous man in broadcasting! Good for him.
He’s not dangerous, he’s just a plain and simple douchebag. Hope he stays on Current TV for a long run, that way no one will ever have to see or hear from him again.
He must be considered a threat if the Koch Bros and Rupert are paying this many “trolls” to show up and bash him whenever his name is mentioned. He must be doing something right and it’s great that he will be able to continue and put Current on the map.
What an ideal development. A complete fall back into obscurity. He should have tried to get his KTLA sportscaster gig back. He’d have more viewers.
Hopefully K.O. will now be able to freely investigate and report on stories that corporate media so successfully suppresses!
Current TV Really? I mean Really? This is laughable.
Current TV averages 23,000 viewers on it’s best nights. The channel has a really bad grainy look and feel and no HD in it’s future. A sad development indeed.
23,001.
Call me #23,001. Sometimes you get no HD, ok? What’s so laughable about Keith’s soft landing at Current TV anyway? If you aren’t a fan of Keith then why even waste your time with such negative bluster? I don’t understand why folks are such hateraters. All Keith has tried to do was counter the massive amount of disinformation and right wing propaganda and messaging, which enabled the fleecing of our national treasure (blood and money). I hope that he does well on Current TV. I’ll be watching even if I am alone in doing so.
Exactly where he belongs: an obscure, America-hating network.
Air America, anyone? Haw! Olbermann can spew his old “arrest Bush & Cheney for war crimes” schtick, and no one listens (except the Demoncraps).
Bush can’t even travel outside the country for fear of being arrested for obvious war crimes. And he should be, along with Cheney.
Oh… I dream of the day W steps off a plane and into handcuffs! Don’t do the crime if ya can’t do the time…
About half the people who watched Obermann just wanted to see what the uber left was saying, it made for good comedy too.
It’s going to great to see Keith Amplified and Expanded now that he’s off NBC I can’t wait for Saturday Night Live to skewer him, it’s going to be great.
After first few shows though everyone one will turn away, Keith will be alone with a Camera, what a sad tale.
What a great move! I can’t wait to watch this new show! And yes, Time-Warner here in LA does carry it. Wonderful.
Maybe he’ll bring Rachel over there too at some point! Awesome.
It’s like the “OWN”, soon no one will care.
Goodbye Keith.