In a similar format to his TV shows, former MSNBC and Sports center anchor Keith Olbermann launched his new podcast Countdown with Keith Olbermann Monday.
In the final part of the episode, Olbermann began a segment titled “Things I Promised Not to Tell,” describing his eventual demise on MSNBC. He detailed how his first show with the network in 1997 was the first to turn a profit, before returning to the network in 2003 to launch The countdown. Profits for the political program rose to $100 million, Olbermann claimed.
But after Tim Russert’s death, things changed at MSNBC according to Olbermann. He said NBC News was then in the hands of “cowards and bullies” like Tom Brokaw and Joe Scarborough.
“By August 2008, Republicans were threatening Brokaw that if he fired me from MSNBC’s coverage of the presidential election, John McCain would not appear in the debate that Brokaw had inherited from the late Tim Russert,” Olbermann said. “So Brokaw came in and threatened — and that’s a nice euphemism — NBC management on behalf of the GOP, just to wait for another debate. Then he bragged about it in The New York Times.”
Olbermann said one of the contract stipulations he was offered to stay with MSNBC, rather than jump to CNN, was a position at NBC. Sunday Night Football. The role would reunite him with his former cohort at ESPN, Dan Patrick. But a meeting with the network’s Jeff Zucker before the 2010 season drove him away from the show and ultimately was a deciding factor in his departure from the network.
“The following piece is a pure hypothetical, which is really better designed for a college course in contract law,” Olbermann said.
“But if in a case like this hypothetical, the guy who was doing, let’s say a hypothetical football show wasn’t actually getting paid to do the hypothetical football show. If doing that hypothetical football show was a benefit, if it was a non-cash payment or an incentive to sign a contract instead of going to some other hypothetical network like CN-hypothetical-N, well then when that hypothetical announcer is taken off that hypothetical football show, the people who hypothetically took him off that football show have hypothetically breached his hypothetical contract, and all of a sudden the hypothetical company’s hypothetical lawyers are asking the hypothetical announcer how much money it would cost them hypothetically to hypothetically cure a hypothetical violation.”
Later in 2010, during the midterm race, he was on the phone with now-Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), and she mentioned several candidates running for office in Arizona who had filed in The countdown had received death threats and were spending their campaign finances on security. Olbermann was asked if he could donate to the campaigns, so he did. He was suspended from the network. Former Vice President Al Gore, who owned the Current cable channel, offered Olbermann a $50 million contract, plus bonuses and an ownership stake in the network, to make the move. The countdown.
He then said, on the record for the first time, that he was not fired from MSNBC, the show was not canceled, but that he had negotiated a settlement with MSNBC for breach of contract while at the same time negotiating with Current.
Olbermann also made other revelations in his podcast debut. Borrowing a segment from his TV shows, Olbermann ranked the worst people in the world, including a snippet about the genesis of The countdown brand on MSNBC.
“In 2003, MSNBC had decided on a new show called The countdown because the President of NBC News (Neal Shapiro) liked the name and thought it would be good to start with the least important story and continue with the most important story,” Olbermann said. “Exactly, 57 minutes later — because in this way – everyone would watch the whole hour.”
Olbermann then revealed that he was not the original host Shapiro had in mind for him The countdown brand.
“He would not give up the idea that he would be the perfect host The countdown it was… (former ABC News reporter/sportscaster) Sam Donaldson. There was an NBC contract with Donaldson’s name in circulation when MSNBC executives discovered that ABC News had tried to get out of their contract with Sam Donaldson.
MSNBC – says Olbermann – in a way to subvert Shapiro’s will, assembled a focus group created by political consultant and television personality Frank Luntz to show “the other guy,” not Donaldson, was the best choice for the show.
“Now how do I know that? I was the other boy!” Olbermann revealed. “Presto! Frank’s focus group somehow came back with that exact conclusion. The offer for Donaldson was withdrawn. Coincidence, no doubt.”
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is a daily podcast partnership between Olbermann and iHeartMedia.
