Can someone spell out for me how that works? Does management of Comcast really not like Olbermann? Do they have investors Olbermann has spoken out against?
The difference is he didn;t have liars tourette syndrome
On DailyKos someone is saying he is going to Versus to do a show with Dan Patrick and that Versus will be renamed NBC Sports.
Nice to hear that some liberals know exactly what he was. Personally I couldn’t stand him. You might say it’s because I lean to the right, but I felt the same way about O’Reilly.
The one thing about Olbermann that set him apart from the rest is his arrogance. Even when he was talking about something I agreed with, the way he talked down to his audience turned me off. He was a smarmy, smirking prick, and I hated him when he was on ESPN with Dan Patrick.
OK. I won’t miss him. I also hope he doesn’t turn up for a while. But he will
My impression from what I saw in the NYT article about this is that Maddow’s show is doing well in the ratings and O’Donnell is doing well enough that what he brougt to MSNBC isn’t as important as it used to be. And they also suggested the Comcast/NBC deal played a large part in it too.
Frankly I’ve been fed up with his attitude for a while. Lately I’ve much preferred Maddow, O’Donnell and even freaking Chris Matthews. Olbermann’s histrionics have gotten grating for me of late.
Hopefully now Maddow will become “the face of liberal-slanted commentary for many people”.
I also want to go on record as saying that Keith was NOT the left’s O’Reilly. Keith didn’t knowingly lie and when he was caught out in a mistake, he owned up. But he was as shrill and as much as a blowhard, joe got that spot on.
A lot of speculation links his firing to the merger. He was an asshole at ESPN and burned his bridges in Bristol. To me, it makes sense that he was an ass at MSNBC too and could just as easily explain his departure.
I loved him paired with Patrick on SportsCenter and would love a TV reunion, but otherwise I won’t miss him much. I haven’t watched him in awhile even though I rarely miss Rachel.
Not exactly setting a high water mark…
I’ve become increasingly uninterested in the show the past few years, but it’s still sad to see such an iconic staple of cable news end so suddenly. I would have appreciated some time to digest it all and for it to have had a proper sendoff after all it has meant to me in my political development. I imagine a lot of liberals are feeling like me tonight.
Countdown had it’s share of brilliance in the heyday of the Bush years, and even until the end his special comments were usually must-see. My problem was never how left-wing he was, or even his undeniable arrogance. Primetime cable news is a business of political entertainment after all, and a strong personality such as his made for great TV. I just started to lose interest because his was the last show to actually feature any political debate.Without anyone to actually disagree with him it just became too predictable and one-note. I actually found myself preferring his competition in that hour on both the other networks for that reason alone.
In any event, I understand that he was a difficult guy to deal with from management’s position, and he isn’t nearly as key to MSNBC’s branding as he used to be. As much as I may miss the show, I can faintly make out a silver lining here. The new lineup really does look better suited to my viewing habits, and it looks like Cenk Uygar is going to get his own hour. That would be fantastic!
I’m not sure what you mean. MSNBC consistently beats CNN in the ratings and is usually in second place for cable news channels after Fox. Most sources attribute that to Olberman’s show. Here is my cite.
It is pretty much established fact Olberman and his show brought MSNBC out of the news channel cellar.
Here’s what is going to happen.
Countdown with Regis Philbin
Live! with Keith and Kelly
I wonder if his salary was so high that his high ratings just didn’t justify it. I find it hard to believe Comcast, just after buying NBC because the latter was doing so poorly, would fire just based on personal reasons. They may have played a part, but Comcast just isn’t that stupid financially.
Unless, as some believe, you think they’d do it to advance a political agenda that would pay off more for them in the future (and avoid the embarrassment of having one of your employees mouth off about stuff you’d rather not have him say).
I’m quite suprised they didn’t move Maddow up to his slot.
The one good thing is that I get to see Ed Schultz more. His old 6 pm slot conflicted with local/national news hour.
Yea, I’m thinking salary dispute too. For better or worse, MSNBC has built a lot of its image and ratings around Olbermann, I don’t think they’d want to get rid of him, even if he is difficult to work with.
I used to like Countdown when it was a “lighter side of news” type show. Then his “special moments” or whatever at the end became more frequent and grew to take over the whole show, and made it into an O’Reilly wanna be.
that was a bit of a surprize. there seem to be a few factors, with most leaning toward him seeing writing on the wall and dealing a way out.
he has become a bit more “get off my lawn” in the last few years. he is good when he has a windmill to tilt at, but there have been times that he has gone to far.
we can thank him for having rachel maddow sit in for him, leading to her own show.
Is 8 years on Countdown the longest he’s managed to keep a job?
While Olbermann may be the best MSNBC has/had, his show still drew a small fraction of viewers as compared to his head-to-head competition.
Frankly, I don’t know how O’Reilly pulls in that many viewers. I did watch him for a while many years ago but can no longer stomach watching his show.
That’s a snide way of putting it, doncha think? He’s certainly been well paid enough over the years to be able to walk away from any job he’s not completely happy with.