Countdown with Keith Olbermann is a weekday podcast that originated as an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program hosted by Keith Olbermann that aired on MSNBC from 2003 to 2011 and on Current TV from 2011 to 2012. The show presented five selected news stories of the day, with commentary by Olbermann and interviews of guests. Our charge for the immediate future is to stay out of the way of the news. ... News is the news. We will not be screwing around with it. ... As times improve and the war [in Iraq] ends we will begin to introduce more and more elements familiar to my style.
The show was known for Olbermann's fast-paced rhetoric, historical and pop culture references, and liberal commentary. Olbermann melded news stories, both serious and light, with commentary, much of it critical of Republicans and conservative politics. The show has been the source of controversy owing to these criticisms, as well as the host's ongoing commentary against Fox News and his feud with its leading primetime personality Bill O'Reilly.
During the January 21, 2011, edition of Countdown, Olbermann announced that it would be his last appearance on the show, but he gave no explanation why. The New York Times reported the following day that Olbermann had negotiated his exit from MSNBC with a secret deal. After being hired by Current TV, Olbermann announced on April 26, 2011, that his nightly news program on the new network would begin June 20, 2011, and would also be called Countdown with Keith Olbermann. On March 30, 2012, Current TV abruptly terminated its relationship with Olbermann and replaced his show with a program hosted by Eliot Spitzer.
On August 1, 2022, Olbermann began producing and hosting a weekday podcast also titled "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", for iHeart Media.
History MSNBC period Countdown with Keith Olbermann began as a successor program to Countdown: Iraq with anchor Lester Holt, which ran from October 2002 until March 31, 2003, anticipating and providing coverage for the Iraq War. Countdown: Iraq was broadcast at 8:00 p.m. on weekday nights, having replaced a cancelled talk show hosted by Phil Donahue. Olbermann, who left MSNBC in the late 1990s, returned to the network around this time and replaced Holt, becoming the permanent host for the renamed Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The show did not feature political commentary in its first few years, simply recapping the news of the day in a "5-4-3-2-1" format as the title suggested.
Countdown began to attract liberal and progressive viewers in 2005 when Olbermann began critiquing and satirizing conservative media commentators, specifically Fox News and its main primetime anchor Bill O'Reilly. He criticized Fox and O'Reilly for purportedly deceiving their viewers in service to their alleged right-wing biases, frequently including the latter in Countdown "Worst Person in the World" segment. O'Reilly, while not directly mentioning Olbermann, launched an online petition implicitly asking MSNBC to fire him,Time: Bill O'Reilly vs. Keith Olbermann , Top 10 TV Feuds. March 12, 2009. and, in conjunction with a call-in campaign organized by Mike Stark,CallingAllWingnuts.com: . Archive accessed February 12, 2013. threatened Stark for mentioning Olbermann by name after phoning in to O'Reilly's radio show.The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly, March 2, 2006. O'Reilly and other Fox personalities accused MSNBC of facilitating a liberal media bias, in what Olbermann described as a war of attrition intended to force him into silence.Olbermann Blasts O'Reilly For Attacking GE: "You Are More Personally Responsible For The 4,000 Dead Americans In Iraq Than All of America's Corporations Put Together." , The Huffington Post, 23 April 2008.
In 2006, Olbermann started delivering occasional "Special Comments" in which he has expressed sharp criticisms of members of the George W. Bush administration, including then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush. While further Special Comments were directed at members of the Republican Party, Olbermann occasionally targeted Democrats as well. Issues addressed in the Special Comments dealt with the Bush Administration's foreign and domestic policies, mainly the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the Special Comments spoke out against the passage of Proposition 8 in California on November 4, 2008, for which he was awarded the 2009 GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding TV Journalism Segment". Olbermann's Special Comments were compared to Edward R. Murrow's signature essays.Boyer, Peter J., One Angry Man: Is Keith Olbermann changing TV news? In the New Yorker, June 23, 2008.
On two occasions, guest hosts for Countdown proved popular enough to be given their own MSNBC shows, contributing to a widespread perception of MSNBC being a left-leaning network. In 2008, Air America Radio personality Rachel Maddow hosted Countdown in Olbermann's absence, leading to the debut of her own program, The Rachel Maddow Show. In 2009, left-wing political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell hosted Countdown for an extended period, leading to the eventual launch of his show The Last Word. Subsequent guest hosts included progressive radio hosts Cenk Uygur and Sam Seder, Obama biographer Richard Wolffe, journalist Chris Hayes, and DNC chairman Howard Dean.
Hiatus and first cancellation On October 28, 2010, five days before the 2010 U.S. elections, Olbermann donated $2,400 each to three Democratic candidates for Congress: Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabby Giffords. In response, MSNBC President Phil Griffin suspended Olbermann indefinitely without pay on November 5 for violating a network policy regarding political contributions which required prior approval from management. An online petition calling for his reinstatement received over 250,000 signatures, and two days after the suspension began, Griffin announced that Olbermann would return to the air starting with the November 9 program.
On the January 21, 2011, episode of Countdown, Olbermann abruptly announced that the show would be his final MSNBC broadcast.Keith Olbermann signs off from MSNBC , CNN.com, 22 January 2011 Olbermann thanked viewers, producers, and technical staff for his show's eight-year success. However, he did not thank Griffin or NBC News president Steve Capus. Neither MSNBC nor Olbermann divulged the reason for his departure. Many liberal bloggers and commentators blamed the cable operator Comcast for Olbermann's firing, accusing the company of silencing the host for political purposes just days after Comcast acquired NBC Universal on January 18.Critics see Comcast's hand in Olbermann departure from MSNBC , The Hill, 22 January 2011Olbermann Fired Because of Comcast via TMZ - Stance on Net Neutrality To Blame? , The Daily Kos, 21 January 2011 Statements from MSNBC and Comcast denied this allegation. Media critic Howard Kurtz, former MSNBC anchor David Shuster, and an anonymous NBC News executiveOlbermann and MSNBC: a failing relationship , Associated Press, 22 January 2011 said that Olbermann's 2010 suspension was a more likely precipitating factor in Countdown cancellation.
In subsequent interviews, Olbermann went into greater detail about the circumstances surrounding his exit from MSNBC. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on June 7, 2011, Olbermann said he had faced increasing opposition from network management after the death of Tim Russert in June, 2008; Russert, the NBC Washington news bureau chief and moderator of Meet the Press, had been Olbermann's advocate and a peacemaker at the network. Olbermann further stated that "there were lots of people who were forced to choose sides" over his presence at MSNBC, including Maddow. Olbermann further claimed that he was not informed of his dismissal from MSNBC until less than a half-hour before his on-air farewell.Keith Olbermann Breaks Silence On MSNBC Exit; Could Earn $100M at Current TV , The Hollywood Reporter, 7 June 2011
However, Olbermann's 2012 breach-of-contract lawsuit against Current TV indicated that Olbermann had been moved to leave MSNBC by Current founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt. The lawsuit alleged that Gore and Hyatt had attempted to court Olbermann, despite being informed that he had two years remaining on his MSNBC contract, and reached an agreement for him to join the network the same month as his departure from MSNBC, according to court documents acquired by Warner Bros.-owned TMZ.
Current TV period On February 8, Olbermann announced that he had been hired as the host of a new primetime show on Current TV, the cable television network founded by former vice president Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt; in April it was announced that the show would retain the Countdown title. Olbermann also became Current TV's "Chief News Officer" and bought an equity stake in the network.For Current TV, Adding Olbermann Is Way to Gain an Identity , The New York Times, 8 February 2011 On May 11, Olbermann announced that Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, filmmakers Michael Moore and Ken Burns, and comedian Richard Lewis would become contributors to the new Countdown.Michael Moore, Ken Burns Tapped as Contributors for Keith Olbermann's Current TV Show, TVNewser, 11 May 2011 During a June 16 interview on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Olbermann further announced that journalists Matt Taibbi and Jeremy Scahill, former Nixon administration official and author John Dean, actor Donald Sutherland, and astronomer Derrick Pitts would also be contributors.Keith Olbermann Adds Contributors to 'Countdown' on Current, Talks Rachel Maddow on NBC, TVNewser, 17 June 2011
On June 20, Countdown debuted on Current TV, concluding with an abbreviated "Special Comment" in which Olbermann outlined his mission statement, quoting Harriet Beecher Stowe. The program drew 179,000 viewers, a significant increase from Current TV's typical 30,000 viewership; it drew more viewers than CNN in the key 25-54 audience demographic.Keith Olbermann's 'Countdown' Beats CNN in Target Demo , The Hollywood Reporter, 21 June 2011 Countdown continued to beat CNN in the 25-54 demo throughout its first week on Current TV.In First Week on Current, Keith Olbermann Beats CNN in Target Demo , The Hollywood Reporter, 28 June 2011 Countdown saw a drop in ratings in its second week, but sustained an audience of 310,000 total viewers by September.'Countdown' on Current TV Drops in Week Two, TVNewser, 6 June 2011Keith Olbermann's 'Countdown' Gets Highest Ratings Since Current TV Debut, TVNewser, 1 September 2011 The show was taped at NEP Studio 33.
For the first two weeks of its Current TV run, Countdown ran slightly longer than an hour at sixty-three minutes in a covert effort to erode MSNBC's viewership. However, Olbermann changed his mind and reverted the running time to the usual sixty minutes, realizing the move "would only serve to annoy fans of" both Countdown and Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show while doing nothing to improve the ratings for his own program. By the fall of 2011, Olbermann came into conflict with Current TV management over production values and creative control and nearly left the network.Al Gore's Desperate Bid to Keep Keith Olbermann—and Save Current TV , The Daily Beast, 6 February 2012
Second cancellation