Less than a year after he returned to television with an equity stake in the broadcaster, Keith Olbermann has flamed out again. He has been terminated by Current TV, effective immediately. His 8pm flagship show will be replaced starting tonight by former CNN host and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
Mr. Olbermann did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Current indicated that he had failed to honor the terms of his five-year, $50 million contract, giving the channel the right to terminate it.
In the letter, the channel’s founders, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, wrote: “We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. We are more committed to those goals today than ever before. Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”
You could see the seeds of this for a while. On the rare occasions that I tuned into Olbermann’s Current show recently, I was struck by the spare black background behind him. Apparently he had problems with the technical output of the program, and took it out on his own show by eliminating the set. Then he refused to join Current’s primary coverage for several weeks, and missed days on his own show as well. He recently took a vacation day on March 5, according to Brian Stelter, which Current alleged was a breach of contract.
There would not be any news programming on Current if Olbermann hadn’t agreed to join the channel and kickstart its fledgling coverage. He was joined by Jennifer Granholm, Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks, and simulcasted shows from liberal radio hosts Bill Press and Stephanie Miller. But Olbermann was the anchor, and he also had an equity stake in the company. It’s unclear what happens to that.
Olbermann now has the distinction of being fired from almost every major cable news channel on television – CNN, MSNBC and now Current. He never appeared on Fox News, but he did work for Fox Broadcasting, and was fired from there. As he would say on ESPN, you can’t stop him, you can’t even hope to contain him.
God, please don’t let him go back to sports broadcasting. I think he sucked worse on that than he has on political and social commentary.
he sucked at both
@DiveCon:
Kinda my point, DiveCon. We all know how bad he was on political and social commentary, but not many who don’t follow sports know how boring, bland, and ill-informed he was at sportscasting.
And they said Limbaugh was done. LMAO
Client #9 is taking over. A douche bag replaced by a scumbag. Not so Current Tv- a place for a career to die. Reminds me of the Indian platforms used to honor their dead or fallen warriors.
What a shame!! I guess all 5 watchers will have to go back to CNN.
@johngalt:
Considering NBC and Fox are major players in the sports broadcast, and Olbermann started at Fox, it’s safe to say that ESPN will keep their nose away from this guy and NBC and Fox are seriously burned by this man-child’s antics.
That and you don’t sweeten any future job deals with another broadcasting company with a running history of making lawsuits against your former employers such as Mr. O here’s done with MSNBC and now CurrentTV… especialy that of Liberal established broadcast companies.
The word “Hyatt” means hotels so if that Joel Hyatt is a Hyatt of the hotel fortune Hyatt family then why is he contributing to a big anything bashing enterprise? If he is guilt ridden by his inherited riches then break down his portfolio of Hyatt shares into One Share certificates then ride the bus giving a share to each rider and when dead assed broke go live in an OWS tent on Midway Island. Those “Trust Fund Babies”, Bill Ayers included, are so condecending with their over the top superiorisms.
ZI watch current now and again… The kids do some good journalism… here and there. We are short of true investigative journalist types lately.
Never heard of olberman… probably one of the leftist turds that gets a click… never watched msnbc or Cnn or any national broadcast… the beauty of the satellite.
I hate communists. They reek death.
His biggest problem was that he tried to keep the some format as at MSNBC—plus his ego. I think Elliot Spitzer will be a good replacement.
@mmercier: Ain’t it the truth what you said:
I have been fascinated by various reports from citizen journalists shown on Current TV.
One was about the male prostitutes in India who live and work near the rail roads.
Another was about bringing cheap but portable cooking stoves to impoverished black Africans.
Still another was about North Korea, although the girls paid too high a price for some of their footage.
But what I wish Current TV would do is have a schedule.
It is catch-as-catch-can.
That means you might find something really amazing, or it might be garbage.
After too much garbage you just stop checking in.
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Tumpetnonterich
hi,
I THOUGHT MY ENGLISH WAS IMPERFECT,
BUT YOU BEAT ME THERE, NICE TO FIND LESSER THAN ME,
ON THE TONGUE
BYE
THE SOOTHSAYER
HI,
I have read somewhere that the ARAB WORLD, HAD BOUGHT SOME SHARES IN THE PRIME NEWS MEDIA, NAMING ONE CNN,
DO WE KNOW ABOUT IT,
AND IF SO THEY WOULD CARRY A BIG INFLUENCE IN THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS WHICH AMERICA HOLD PRECIOUS AND IS TRYING TO MAKE RADICAL CHANGES ON NOVEMBER,
IT’S IMPORTANT FOR DECISIONS ON THE KEYSTONE OIL PIPELINE BEING PUT ON THE THE HOLD FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN THE PRESIDENT WISH TO KEEP HIS GOOD CONNECTION HE HAS BOW TO PROTECT WITH THE ARABS KINGS,
BYE