Keith Olbermann announced Friday night on his “Countdown” show, that this would be his last televised show for MSNBC.
UPDATE Saturday January 22, 2011. Word from cable channel pundits and hosts speculate that Mr. Olbermann had been in process of a buyout of his contract… whether jumping or being pushed… perhaps both. There appears to be much talk about him signing what sounds like a non-compete clause of sorts, saying he will not appear in a hosting context elsewhere. That last is speculation only. What many hosts like Anderson Cooper of CNN have mentioned often is how Mr. Olbermann built so much programming into MSNBC over the years, grooming and regarding Rachel Maddow and others. Yet most of us remember too MSNBC taking Chris Matthews and Olbermann away as anchors for the 2008 Presidential ongoing thunderdome events. There appears to have been a bad marriage at MSNBC… one like many a politican’s marriage… for logrolling, until one or the other doesnt want to continue the dance.
UPDATE: Some are saying that COMCAST /NBC merger this week, apparently causing sudden departure of Jeff Zucker who in management seemed a protector of Olbermann, is a part of the ‘sudden last show of Keith Olbermann’. MSNBC denies this apparently.
MSNBC issued a statement today that it had ended its contract with Mr. Olbermann (with apparently with two years left to go) who had the network’s top rated show. His points of view like the points of view of other ‘no holding back’ commentators, like Beck and Limbaugh, often brought much circular flamethrowing by one side or another.
Though Mr. Olbermann was mum about why he was leaving… the fact that both cable network and host are not talking bespeaks of some kind of legal agreement that includes a ‘no bad words about one another’ clause.
Often, the reasons hosts, like Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced her leavetaking of her shows (both television and radio, at different times), and also others like Howard Stern, are not a secret.
Either there is
a personal crisis at home,
lack of support by advertisers for certain perceived ‘over the line’ comments by show host,
too much time taken off,
not liked by management for diva or drunken or drugged reasons (not saying any of those apply with those mentioned here)
and sometimes legal entanglements that cannot be undone,
sudden revealing of a formerly hidden peccadillo,
or a legal thud about to come down on the host or the network, causing various to dive to CYA and bunker down.
And sometimes, the sudden end of a show can come about as those in power have been planning the person’s demise from the air, for some time, just looking for ‘one more tipping point’ thing.
Rewind: reported that Keith Olbermann donated personally to candidates during the election cycle, in contravention of the network’s policies.
Read more: Rewind to the past when Mr. Olbermann was chastised strongly for contributing to candidates running for office, against contract rules it was said.
I listen to most pundits, all of them, to see what’s what. I like hearing how they reflect what many other discrete groups of Americans are thinking. It’s a lot like a ‘listening in’ on how people think differently from one another, express their dislikes and likes openly, if not always evenhandedly.
It will be interesting to see where Mr. Olbermann lands next. And how MSNBC will change its line up of ‘voices’ reflecting various segments of our culture.