Keith Olbermann
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Keith Olbermann is a highly talented broadcaster, a distinctive and outspoken voice and a mercurial personality with a track record of attacking his superiors and making early exits. He was MSNBC’s highest-rated host until he left to anchor his own show on Current TV.
Rather audaciously, Mr. Olbermann tried to draw viewers away from MSNBC and to his new home, where he planned to add more hours of like-minded left-leaning hosts.
His abrupt departure on Jan. 21, 2011 — which he announced himself on his show, “Countdown” — came as a shock to his many fans, some of whom accused Comcast, the incoming owner of MSNBC’s parent, NBC Universal, of forcing out the host for political reasons. Mr. Olbermann announced in April that he was relaunching “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on Current, beginning on June 20 at his old time of 8 p.m. Eastern.
His departure from MSNBC followed some stormy interactions with management. He was once suspended by MSNBC for making contributions to Democratic candidates, and found himself embroiled in a corporate stand-off between the then-owners of MSNBC, the General Electric Company, and the owner of the Fox News Channel, News Corporation. Executives on both sides sought to tamp down the often vitriolic commentary back and forth between Mr. Olbermann and the Fox News host, Bill O’Reilly.
Current TV’s Big Bet
In the wake of Mr. Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC, it was announced in February 2011 that he would host a prime-time program on Current, the low-rated cable channel co-founded by Al Gore. The channel averages fewer than 25,000 viewers in prime time; at MSNBC, Mr. Olbermann often commanded audiences exceeding 1 million. Mr. Olbermann’s salary was not disclosed, but he was granted an equity stake in Current, along with a management role.
Unlike most cable channels, which, like MSNBC, are owned by sprawling media companies, Current is privately and independently owned by Mr. Gore, the former vice president, and other backers. It was betting on Mr. Olbermann to put it on the cable map. Targeting young people, it originally subsisted on YouTube-style submissions and video journalists. More recently it started producing and acquiring traditional television series, like repeats of “This American Life.”
A move to Current TV presented a challenge to fans of Mr. Olbermann’s MSNBC show to follow him to a channel that is available in only about 60 million homes. Current is usually provided only on the digital tier of cable television systems, which requires a separate receiver.
However, one thing remained steady when Mr. Olbermann made the switch to Current TV: his tendency to estrange himself from his bosses. He had been on the job scarcely three months when trouble started. Mr Olbermann declined Current’s requests to host special hours of election coverage, apparently out of frustration about technical difficulties that plagued his 8 p.m. program, “Countdown.”
The channel decided to produce election shows without him. Mr. Olbermann, however, said he did not know that, and on Jan. 3, 2012, the day of the Iowa caucus, the cold war of sorts reached a flash point. He held a staff meeting even though “Countdown” had been pre-empted. Perceiving it to be an act of defiance, David Bohrman, Current’s president, wrote a memo to Mr. Olbermann’s staff telling them that the anchor had long ago given up the opportunity to anchor on election nights.
“Countdown” was back on the schedule the next day, and Current declined to comment about Mr. Olbermann’s status at the channel. But the struggle for control — which Mr. Olbermann talked about on Twitter — hinted at turmoil behind the scenes at Current and highlights how hard it can be to build big media brands around unpredictable personalities.
Years of Conflicts
When he left MSNBC, many people inside the television industry were astonished that Mr. Olbermann, whose forceful personality and liberal advocacy had lifted the channel from irrelevance to competitiveness and profitability, would be ushered out the door with no fanfare, no promoted farewell show and only a perfunctory thanks for his efforts.
But underlying the decision, which one executive involved said was not a termination but a “negotiated separation,” were years of behind-the-scenes tension, conflicts and near terminations.
Phil Griffin, his former boss, along with Jeff Zucker, the head of NBC Universal, and Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, had long protected and defended Mr. Olbermann, even when insiders like the NBC anchor emeritus Tom Brokaw publicly took Mr. Olbermann to task. Mr. Brokaw said Mr. Olbermann had “gone too far” in campaign coverage that openly took Democratic positions.
Inside the offices of MSNBC, staff members grew more restive about Mr. Olbermann’s temperament. Some days Mr. Olbermann threatened not to come to work at all and a substitute anchor had to be notified to be on standby.
Mr. Olbermann was within one move of being fired in November 2010 after he was suspended for making donations to Democratic Congressional candidates. He threatened to make an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to protest the suspension; Mr. Zucker was prepared to fire him on the spot if he did, according to a senior NBC Universal executive who declined to be identified in discussing confidential deliberations.
Pattern of Great Promise
The pattern of great promise followed by eventual disaffection was established early in Mr. Olbermann’s career. As a young sports reporter for UPI Television, he was fired for telling his boss “this is the minor leagues here.” In the early 1980s, he had a short, stormy tenure at CNN.
He achieved national prominence on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” in the early 1990s, but left after a difficult time that included a reprimand for making an appearance on “The Daily Show” without permission. He labeled his departure from ESPN in 1997 a “nuclear war.”
Mr. Olbermann popped up on MSNBC for the first time in 1998, hosting a news show that evolved, against his wishes, into a nightly examination of the Clinton sex scandal. He left and joined the Fox Sports Network. That stint ended in acrimony as well. Rupert Murdoch, head of the News Corporation, which ran the sports network, later said, “I fired him; he’s crazy.”
He joined MSNBC in 2003 as a fill-in host. Less than two months later, Mr. Olbermann won the job full time. He transformed the show into “Countdown,” and he — and MSNBC — were off and running.
He managed to expand his audience steadily. Starting from a base of a couple hundred thousand viewers, he jumped more than 50 percent from 2006 to 2007, reaching 726,000. From there he built the show until it surpassed one million viewers a night, still well behind Fox News but ahead of CNN.
In a New Yorker interview, Mr. Griffin of MSNBC recalled those early appearances: “First day he was in TV, I knew right away that Keith had something that I’d never seen. He was made for this. I mean, the guy is crazy, but he is made for this.”
(In the same interview, Mr. Olbermann could not help commenting: “Phil thinks he’s my boss.”)
In an interview, Mr. Griffin acknowledged that Mr. Olbermann was a “brand definer” for MSNBC — not just because of the success of “Countdown” but because his show was used to develop other hosts for the network as well. Rachel Maddow started as a frequent “Countdown” guest, as did Lawrence O’Donnell, who began as a fill-in host for Mr. Olbermann. Mr. Griffin called Mr. Olbermann “the tent pole at the center” of the network’s sensibility.
Relaunching the Olbermann Brand
Challenging MSNBC, which has a stable lineup of left-leaning hosts, Mr. Olbermann already seems to have succeeded in one respect: in creating a robust marketplace for liberal television talent. Since he left in January, MSNBC signed prominent contributors like Eugene Robinson, the Washington Post columnist, to new long-term contracts, in some cases staving off Current’s attempts to poach them.
Mr. Olbermann has his own liberal voices to nurture on the network, like the muckraking Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi, the law professor Jonathan Turley, and Heather McGhee, who directs the Washington office of the research group Demos, three of the contributors announced by Current.
But it is unclear how often the contributors will appear, or how many are being paid. The payments for a liberal filmmaker, Michael Moore, who was named as a contributor in April, will be given to charity.
In the wake of Mr. Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC, it was announced in February 2011 that he would host a prime-time program on Current, the low-rated cable channel co-founded by Al Gore. The channel averages fewer than 25,000 viewers in prime time; at MSNBC, Mr. Olbermann often commanded audiences exceeding 1 million. Mr. Olbermann’s salary was not disclosed, but he was granted an equity stake in Current, along with a management role.
Unlike most cable channels, which, like MSNBC, are owned by sprawling media companies, Current is privately and independently owned by Mr. Gore, the former vice president, and other backers. It was betting on Mr. Olbermann to put it on the cable map. Targeting young people, it originally subsisted on YouTube-style submissions and video journalists. More recently it started producing and acquiring traditional television series, like repeats of “This American Life.”
A move to Current TV presented a challenge to fans of Mr. Olbermann’s MSNBC show to follow him to a channel that is available in only about 60 million homes. Current is usually provided only on the digital tier of cable television systems, which requires a separate receiver.
However, one thing remained steady when Mr. Olbermann made the switch to Current TV: his tendency to estrange himself from his bosses. He had been on the job scarcely three months when trouble started. Mr Olbermann declined Current’s requests to host special hours of election coverage, apparently out of frustration about technical difficulties that plagued his 8 p.m. program, “Countdown.”
The channel decided to produce election shows without him. Mr. Olbermann, however, said he did not know that, and on Jan. 3, 2012, the day of the Iowa caucus, the cold war of sorts reached a flash point. He held a staff meeting even though “Countdown” had been pre-empted. Perceiving it to be an act of defiance, David Bohrman, Current’s president, wrote a memo to Mr. Olbermann’s staff telling them that the anchor had long ago given up the opportunity to anchor on election nights.
“Countdown” was back on the schedule the next day, and Current declined to comment about Mr. Olbermann’s status at the channel. But the struggle for control — which Mr. Olbermann talked about on Twitter — hinted at turmoil behind the scenes at Current and highlights how hard it can be to build big media brands around unpredictable personalities.
Years of Conflicts
When he left MSNBC, many people inside the television industry were astonished that Mr. Olbermann, whose forceful personality and liberal advocacy had lifted the channel from irrelevance to competitiveness and profitability, would be ushered out the door with no fanfare, no promoted farewell show and only a perfunctory thanks for his efforts.
But underlying the decision, which one executive involved said was not a termination but a “negotiated separation,” were years of behind-the-scenes tension, conflicts and near terminations.
Phil Griffin, his former boss, along with Jeff Zucker, the head of NBC Universal, and Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, had long protected and defended Mr. Olbermann, even when insiders like the NBC anchor emeritus Tom Brokaw publicly took Mr. Olbermann to task. Mr. Brokaw said Mr. Olbermann had “gone too far” in campaign coverage that openly took Democratic positions.
Inside the offices of MSNBC, staff members grew more restive about Mr. Olbermann’s temperament. Some days Mr. Olbermann threatened not to come to work at all and a substitute anchor had to be notified to be on standby.
Mr. Olbermann was within one move of being fired in November 2010 after he was suspended for making donations to Democratic Congressional candidates. He threatened to make an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to protest the suspension; Mr. Zucker was prepared to fire him on the spot if he did, according to a senior NBC Universal executive who declined to be identified in discussing confidential deliberations.
Pattern of Great Promise
The pattern of great promise followed by eventual disaffection was established early in Mr. Olbermann’s career. As a young sports reporter for UPI Television, he was fired for telling his boss “this is the minor leagues here.” In the early 1980s, he had a short, stormy tenure at CNN.
He achieved national prominence on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” in the early 1990s, but left after a difficult time that included a reprimand for making an appearance on “The Daily Show” without permission. He labeled his departure from ESPN in 1997 a “nuclear war.”
Mr. Olbermann popped up on MSNBC for the first time in 1998, hosting a news show that evolved, against his wishes, into a nightly examination of the Clinton sex scandal. He left and joined the Fox Sports Network. That stint ended in acrimony as well. Rupert Murdoch, head of the News Corporation, which ran the sports network, later said, “I fired him; he’s crazy.”
He joined MSNBC in 2003 as a fill-in host. Less than two months later, Mr. Olbermann won the job full time. He transformed the show into “Countdown,” and he — and MSNBC — were off and running.
He managed to expand his audience steadily. Starting from a base of a couple hundred thousand viewers, he jumped more than 50 percent from 2006 to 2007, reaching 726,000. From there he built the show until it surpassed one million viewers a night, still well behind Fox News but ahead of CNN.
In a New Yorker interview, Mr. Griffin of MSNBC recalled those early appearances: “First day he was in TV, I knew right away that Keith had something that I’d never seen. He was made for this. I mean, the guy is crazy, but he is made for this.”
(In the same interview, Mr. Olbermann could not help commenting: “Phil thinks he’s my boss.”)
In an interview, Mr. Griffin acknowledged that Mr. Olbermann was a “brand definer” for MSNBC — not just because of the success of “Countdown” but because his show was used to develop other hosts for the network as well. Rachel Maddow started as a frequent “Countdown” guest, as did Lawrence O’Donnell, who began as a fill-in host for Mr. Olbermann. Mr. Griffin called Mr. Olbermann “the tent pole at the center” of the network’s sensibility.
Relaunching the Olbermann Brand
Challenging MSNBC, which has a stable lineup of left-leaning hosts, Mr. Olbermann already seems to have succeeded in one respect: in creating a robust marketplace for liberal television talent. Since he left in January, MSNBC signed prominent contributors like Eugene Robinson, the Washington Post columnist, to new long-term contracts, in some cases staving off Current’s attempts to poach them.
Mr. Olbermann has his own liberal voices to nurture on the network, like the muckraking Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi, the law professor Jonathan Turley, and Heather McGhee, who directs the Washington office of the research group Demos, three of the contributors announced by Current.
But it is unclear how often the contributors will appear, or how many are being paid. The payments for a liberal filmmaker, Michael Moore, who was named as a contributor in April, will be given to charity.
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