Breaking: Keith Olbermann Signs off “Countdown” for the Last Time.
Posted: January 21, 2011 Filed under: Media, Surreality | Tags: breaking news, Comcast, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC 36 Comments
Here is the video of Olberman’s goodbye statement.
The NYT has a banner up saying “Breaking News: MSNBC Says It Has Ended Keith Olbermann’s Contract.”
That’s all I can find so far. My only guess on the reason for the termination is that it has something to do with the NBC/Comcast merger. I will update as I learn more–or anyone else can feel free to update this post.
Terse statement released by MSNBC:
21 Jan 2011 8:02 PM
STATEMENT REGARDING KEITH OLBERMANNSTATEMENT REGARDING KEITH OLBERMANN:
MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC’s success and we wish him well in his future endeavors.
For more information contact:
Jeremy Gaines
e: jeremy.gaines@nbcuni.com
From the NYT Media Decoder blog:
Keith Olbermann, the highest-rated host on MSNBC, announced abruptly on the air Friday night that he is leaving the show immediately.
The host, who has had a stormy relationship with the management of the network for some time, especially since he was suspended for two days last November, came to an agreement with NBC’s corporate management late this week to settle his contract and step down.
In a closing statement on his show, Mr. Olbermann said simply that it would be the last edition of the program. He offered no explanation other than on occasion, the show had become too much for him.
According to the post, Lawrence O’Donnell’s show “The Last Word,” will replace “Countdown” at 8PM. MSNBC’s “settlement with Olbermann will keep him from moving to another network for an extended period of time.” It sounds like this was Olbermann’s idea, but if so, why announce it so suddenly?
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peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Looks like I’m all alone here. lol
nope… i was just laughing at Peter Daou’s last tweet and singing the Sesame street song … one of these things is not like the other …
peterdaou Peter Daou
#Olbermann down, now if only @janehamsher, @ggreenwald, @markos et al. would stop blogging, Dems could painlessly ease over to the right
Which of the above seems more like a Republican plant to start out with?
Jane Hamsher before Olberman, lol.
I always thought Markos was a Republican …
dak — I thought Markos WAS a Republican (that is, literally) before he moved to the Democrats when the religio-conservatives started to dominate the Rs. Along with Arianna (sp? I don’t really care enough to check). At least, while I don’t have any links I’m rather sure that’s how the story went — maybe I picked that up when I still hung around on TL?
Haven’t read the rest of this thread yet but just saw Valhalla pop up on the sidebar of new comments– YEP Markos WAS a Republican! I have a link too. Hang on…
Here y’all go, right out of the horse’s mouth himself… Markos on his days as an open Republican:
I’ve said it a gazillion times before and I’ll say it again:
Wonk — thanks! I felt like I learned that from some not-crazy source, just couldn’t remember where. ITA on the destruction thing. That’s why it was so important to destroy Clinton and support Obama for them.
I’ll keep updating anyway….
I just tweeted it and posted it to the facebook
Now that Olbermann is off the Obama bandwagon, comcast has no use for him
that sounds like a reasonable guess, Dak
I’m dropping by as often as I can. WOW this seemed to come out of nowhere. I hadn’t even heard a rumor about this.
Welcome, Native1. It’s nice to see you again.
Thanks for the link to the good-bye video. I quit watching Olbermann in 2008 because my blood pressure couldn’t take it.
Yah, me too. Giant bombastic ass.
This is from Raw Story:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/olbermann-quits-msnbc/
Nothing new there so far…says “developing….”
Well can’t say that I’ll miss him. Then again I turned off the TV regarding news awhile ago. When it became readily apparent that no one in the mainstream media cared about the actual Democratic process I said buh-bye.
Uh-oh…what will Jane do for network facetime now? I saw her once on O’Donnell but most of the time (when I saw it) she was on Olbermann’s show.
Those who blindly supported Obama threw away the baby with the bathwater.
All we have now is Obamacrats and Republicans. In the next election the choice is Obama and a Republican.
Ugh! I’m voting for Nader. LOL.
Doesn’t Olbermann have a medical condition that doesn’t allow him to drive? Could that have factored into his abrupt decision to end his show?
Wow, that was a left hook! Flushed him out for good, and I can only hope that he goes bankrupt.
Are we supposed to care whether he is on TV or not? He is part of the eason the country has Obumbles. He is an Asshat. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. One by one, karma is catching up with the wicked. Now if only Tingles would just follow suit….
Asshat.
Hillary 2012
So, what did Keith Olbermann do before CountDown?
Sports. He was on Fox Sports, and before that ESPN where he was such an ass to his female colleague she used to hide from him and cry in the ladies’ room. Good riddance to him, but he’ll undoubtedly land somewhere else.
Olbermann was supposed to be around for 2 more years…..Maybe something about the NBC/Comcast merger gave the network an out to “renegotiate” his contract…
I don’t think it’s Comcast. I think Olbermann’s a diva without an Opera. Spittle is not an aria.
Bet Tweety is beside himself with joy.
Chris Matthews is one of the most repulsive, disgusting creatures on earth–every bit as much a misogynist as Olbermann. I’d love to have both of them disappear.
Couldn’t agree more. If anything he’s worse.
And he has that perverted way of talking that seems like he’s always about to spit on you.
O’Donnell swooping into Olbermann’s 8pm timeslot reminds me of Glinda saying of the Wicked Witch of the West, “She’s worse than the other one.”
Karma is right. Isn’t it funny that one by one the people who knifed Hillary in the back are getting their comeuppance? When will Brazille feel the weight of her perfidy?
not soon enough for me, HT
Somewhere Ed Murrow is smiling… now that this ass is justly canned, he will no longer be able to steal Ed’s sigh off every night. 🙂 Good night and good luck yourself KO!
lol.
I once wanted to have his babies. (kidding…sorta).
Too bad. Once the voice of “the left truth to power”, he totally fucked up. Big time.
I keep seeing the Comcast factor come up on the blogs. Definitely think Comcast has something to do with Keith being gone, but I think another aspect to this is that even before Comcast came into the picture, NBC & friends (people like Tom Brokaw??) and MSNBC.com (not the same entity as MSNBC news channel), etc. just did not want to be associated with the name Keith Olbermann. I’ve noticed several noises they’ve made here and there in the press over the last several months esp.
If I can work it in, I’ll try to do a post, but y’all can google MSNBC.com wanting to change their url or something because they don’t want to be associated with MSNBC’s partisanship. I distinctly remember reading that story and thinking, hmm… sounds like they’re starting a duel with Keith.