The Al Gore - Keith Olbermann soap opera continues

More on the Keith Olbermann Al Gore connection from the Hollywood Reporter:

Less than 24 hours after Keith Olbermann (above left) anchored his last edition of Countdown on Jan. 21, Al Gore (above right) placed a call to his friend inviting him to join Current TV.

A contract was quickly hammered out. But it was Gore who convinced Olbermann to join the network, say sources. The former vice president and co-founder of Current was a fan of Countdown where he had also been a guest in the past.

Current averaged 18,000 homes in primetime for fourth quarter 2010, lower than any other network measured by Nielsen.

From one commenter:

18,000?

That would be 11,000 people that fell asleep and rolled over on the remote control, 6,000 small children that were looking for Sponge Bob and just dropped the remote, 560 people in homes where they just turned on the TV and accidentally got this channel, 424 people with a really bad home work assignment, 15 people that work for Al Gore, and then there is Al himself.

Link

Keith Olbermann has new job on Al Gore's Channel

Jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

Keith Olbermann (pictured) was suddenly fired from MSNBC and is now said to be moving to Al Gore's Current TV.

Might work for both Olbermann and Current.

I watched a program on Current TV once but then had to watch a rerun of Captain Kangaroo to get me out of the doldrums after watching uninspiring teens moping around complaining about the environment.

It was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

All in all this Olbermann and Current TV thing should be a perfect fit. It will be someone few like to watch going to a channel few like to watch.

Link

Don Imus: Rachel Maddow is a coward gutless sniveling worm

Don Imus


C'mon Imus, why don't you tell us what you really think?

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Don Imus slammed Rachel Maddow on his Fox Business Network show on Wednesday.

Imus took Maddow to task for not defending Keith Olbermann immediately after the news broke that he was fired from MSNBC.

Imus knew that Maddow owed her MSNBC job to Olbermann yet she turned her back on him when he was fired.

“Having nothing to do with her politics, she is a gutless coward and I’ll tell you why. . . . for this woman, who owed her job to him – she’s live there with Bill Maher, a lot of people watch that – terribly influential program – not to offer a defense of Olbermann, in spite of what you think about Olbermann, is unconscionable. . . she’s awful. She’s the worst kind of coward and gutless, sniveling worm.”

Shuffling deck chairs on the MSNBC Titanic

Say what you will about Keith Olbermann - he never feigned fairness or balance like so many other leftist cable news program hosts do.

He was always up front about his political leanings. He never tried to hide his loathing of conservatives.

Maybe it was his honesty that got him the highest ratings of any cable news show on either MSNMC or CNN. At the second link below there is a listing of the cable news shows by number of viewers. Olbermann is the next one after all of the Fox News shows.

MSNBC is going to have another angry leftist, Lawrence O'Donnell, take over Olbermann's 8:00 time slot. Ed Schultz will be moved to juggle the time slots.

So not much has changed really - just a shuffling of the chairs on the decks of the MSNBC Titanic, which gets beaten consistently and badly in the ratings wars by its arch-rival, Fox News.

Link here and here.

Olbermann ouster 1 yr after demise of Air America

It may be coincidental irony or it may be an omen. The ouster of ultra-liberal Keith Olbermann from MSNBC came exactly one year after the ultra-liberal Air America Radio went belly up.

Air America was started with seed money from George Soros in the early months of 2004. It was a far-left radio network headed by talk show host Al Franken (pictured) who was intended to be the liberal answer to Bill O'reilly. Mr. Franken even called his Air American talk-show the "Franken Factor."

Air America was intended to help elect John Kerry and we all know how that turned out.

The report announcing the final shut-down of Air America along with a multitude of excuses why it failed can be found here.

More on the abrupt Keith Olbermann firing

The firing of liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann (pictured) came so quickly after the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast that it sure seems as though Comcast insisted on the Olbermann ouster.

Why else would MSNBC fire the host of their most popular show? The chart below shows that Olbermann had the most viewers of any cable news program that wasn't on Fox - the King of Cable News.

By the way, the cheering you hear in the background is probably Olbermann's associates at MSNBC applauding his departure. Olbermann has been known as a difficult man to get along with and may not be missed by those at the MSNBC offices.



Cable News viewers on Thursday January 20, 2011 showing Keith Olbermann as the MSNBC leader just below the FOX News programs.

FOX News - Bill O’Reilly - 2,918,000
FOX News - Sean Hannity - 2,079,000
FOX News - Bret Baier - 1,940,000
FOX News - Shepard Smith - 1,786,000
FOX News - Glenn Beck - 1,780,000
FOX News - Greta Van Susteren - 1,460,000
MSNBC - Keith Olbermann - 1,106,000
CNN - Piers Morgan - 1,025,000
MSNBC - Rachel Maddow - 976,000
MSNBC - Lawrence O'Donnell - 855,000
MSNBC - Ed Shultz - 760,000
CNN - Anderson Cooper - 740,000
MSNBC - Chris Matthews - 700,000

Link here and here.

Keith Olbermann out at MSNBC - effective immediately!

From a report at the link below:

Keith Olbermann (pictured) and MSNBC are going their separate ways ... effective immediately.

MSNBC issued a statement saying they had ended its contract with Olbermann.

Friday January 21 was the last appearance for the liberal firebrand on his MSNBC program Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Lawrence O'Donnell, who hosts a show on the network at 10:00 PM, will fill Olbermann's 8:00 PM slot beginning Monday.

But can O'Donnell throw papers at the camera? Olbermann was pretty good at it.

Link

Olbermann is back ranting on MSNBC

When MSNBC suspended Keith Olbermann (pictured) indefinitely they forgot to define the word indefinite.

He was reinstated almost a week ago.

What wasn't reinstated was the Olbermann segment called "Worst Person" award.

Actually, Olbermann dropped "Worst Person" before he was dropped (temporarily) by MSNBC.

"Worst Person" may have been dropped because the network wouldn't allow Olbermann to award it to himself -- a deserving candidate. But, maybe not.

Olbermann suspension to end Tuesday

The abrupt suspension of MSNBC's liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann for making donations to Democrat candidates has ignited a national debate over journalistic objectivity and media partisanship, with many critics, including a U.S. senator, questioning the motives of network parent GE as it prepares to hand the No. 2 cable-news outlet to new owners.

MSNBC will soon become part of cable giant Comcast, which is due to close its acquisition of the company before year's end.

Outspoken liberal Olbermann has the top rated political show on MSNBC.

Click here to put any of MSNBC's programs in perspective by comparing to Fox News.

The Olbermann reinstatement story is here.

Flying with Oprah: United Airlines honors the talk-show host

United Airlines honors Oprah Winfrey with a 757 newly painted from nose to tail with the logo for Oprah's farewell season.

The Oprah plane will fly United customers between cities in the airline's domestic network through May 2011. An onboard video featuring Oprah Winfrey will greet customers.

More here.

Cable News viewers

Cable News race by number of viewers on Tuesday October 26, 2010*

Fox News continues to have many times more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined as shown below:

FOX News - Bill O’Reilly - 3,734,000
FOX News - Sean Hannity - 2,720,000
FOX News - Greta Van Susteren - 2,296,000
FOX News - Bret Baier - 2,284,000
FOX News - Shepard Smith - 2,244,000
FOX News - Glenn Beck - 2,154,000
MSNBC - Keith Olbermann - 1,190,000
MSNBC - Rachel Maddow - 1,087,000
MSNBC - Lawrence O'Donnell - 1,048,000
MSNBC - Ed Shultz - 724,000
CNN-HN Nancy Grace - 670,000
MSNBC - Chris Matthews - 628,000
CNN - Anderson Cooper - 591,000
CNN - Larry King - 560,000
CNN-HN - Joy Behar - 339,000

*Matt Drudge

Parker-Spitzer on CNN begins with new low

Disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer isn't exactly stunning them with his new show partnered with Kathleen Parker on CNN.

That's the new CNN show that has the liberal Spitzer sitting at a round table the size of a medium pizza with conservative Kathleen Parker.

From TVNewser:

Last night’s “Parker-Spitzer” saw the lowest numbers yet for the program and the show did little to help the one that followed on the schedule — “Larry King Live” which had its worst numbers in more than 10 years.

In its sixth outing, “Parker-Spitzer” drew 311,000 Total Viewers. That’s lower than the previous low for the time period set by Campbell Brown earlier this year - 332,000. Last week, Parker-Spitzer finished fourth in the time period averaging 465,000 Total Viewers.

The viewership challenged CNN needs more help than Parker-Spitzer can bring to the sagging cable news network.

Click here to see how CNN compares to other cable news networks. The Parker-Spitzer story is here.

Fox News remains well above other Cable News Channels

Cable News race by number of viewers on Tuesday September 28, 2010*

Fox News continues to have many times more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined as shown below:

FOX News - Bill O’Reilly - 3,154,000
FOX News - Sean Hannity - 2,306,000
FOX News - Glenn Beck - 2,161,000
FOX News - Greta Van Susteren - 2,115,000
FOX News - Bret Baier - 2,049,000
FOX News - Shepard Smith - 1,744,000
MSNBC - Rachel Maddow - 1,018,000
MSNBC - Keith Olbermann - 999,000
MSNBC - Lawrence O'Donnell - 860,000
MSNBC - Ed Shultz - 711,000
MSNBC - Chris Matthews - 663,000
CNN-HN Nancy Grace - 561,000
CNN - Anderson Cooper - 560,000

*Matt Drudge

Piers Morgan to take over for Larry King on CNN

Piers Morgan, the well-known, though often caustic, judge on the popular America's Got Talent will replace Larry King on CNN on January 4.

Piers Morgan is shown above with Larry King.

Long rumored as the news network's front-runner, Morgan, 45, will likely bring a more confrontational interview style than the venerable King, whose 25-year-old Larry King Live has suffered a sharp drop in viewership and will end Dec. 16.

Link

Genial TV host Art Linkletter dead at age 97

Art Linkletter (pictured at right) was the host of two of television’s longest-running shows, “People are Funny” and “House Party,” in the 1950s and 1960s.

From his early days as an announcer on local radio and a roving broadcaster at state fairs, Mr. Linkletter showed a talent for ingratiating himself with his subjects and getting them to open up, often with hilarious results.

Art Linkletter is shown above interviewing a child on “House Party.”

He was particularly adept at putting small children at ease, which he did regularly on a segment of “House Party,” a reliably amusing question-and-answer session that provided the material for his best-selling book “Kids Say the Darndest Things!”

His wholesome, friendly manner and upbeat appeal endeared him to millions of Americans even though TV critics and intellectuals found the Linkletter persona "bland."

Link

Kids TV time linked to school woes

From a CNN Health report at the link below says kids' TV time is linked to school woes and bad habits.

Young children who watch a lot of TV aren't just missing out on more stimulating activities. They may also be destined for problems at school and unhealthier habits later in life, new research suggests.

Each additional hour of TV that toddlers watch per week translates into poorer classroom behavior, lower math scores, less physical activity, and more snacking at age 10, according to a new study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

"Kids should be doing things that are intellectually enriching: playing with board games, playing with dice, playing with things that will improve their motor skills, reading," says the lead author of the study, Linda Pagani, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Psychoeducation at the University of Montreal, in Quebec. "All that is replaced by sitting on the couch."

More here.

Bill Moyers Journal - finally off the air

Many people have been drawn in by the folksy charm of former Lyndon Johnson White House press secretary Bill Moyers (pictured).

His far-left liberal political ideas were shrouded in a pleasing southern homey style.

However, many saw him as a ‘leftist wingnut’ who invited guests to the PBS program Bill Moyers Journal who shared his leftist views. Guests with opposing views almost never appeared on his program.

He held conservative political show hosts in disdain calling one FOX News program “political pornography.”

Now that he has retired, liberals will likely trot out Moyers as some sort of revered source of truth much as they did Jimmy Carter (that is until Carter shamed himself with his anti-Semitism and a semi-plagiarized book) giving Moyers an even greater platform to offer his self-righteous pronouncements.

Oprah who? Judge Judy tops Oprah Winfrey Show

Judge Judy tops the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Top 25 Syndicated Shows for the week ending April 25, 2010 by number of viewers

1 WHEEL OF FORTUNE - 9,807,000
2 JEOPARDY - 8,108,000
3 Two and a Half Men - 6,897,000
4 JUDGE JUDY - 6,085,000
5 Entertainment Tonight - 5,714,000
6 Oprah Winfrey Show - 5,681,000

Judge Judy was fourth, and trumped Oprah for daytime supremacy for the sixth consecutive week in the week ending April 25.

Link

FOX News Channel has been #1 for 100 consecutive months

More proof that far-left liberalism doesn’t sell very well in middle America.

The gang at FNC has to be pleased.

The network rolls in at #1 for 100 consecutive months in total viewership, according to Nielsen Media Research. This includes Primetime and Total Day news programming.

FNC also secured nine out of the top 10 programs in cable news for April in total viewers. Here's the pecking order of the top five:

1. Bill O'Reilly (pictured)
2. Glenn Beck
3. Sean Hannity
4. Bret Baier
5. Greta Van Susteren

Link

Larry King lawyer: 50-50 chance no divorce

Larry King’s supposed divorce from Shawn Southwick, is 7th wife, has been in the scandal magazine headlines for a week, but he may not go though with his 8th divorce after all.

According to the CNN host’s lawyer, Dennis Wasser, that actually could be the case.

King and Southwick are shown above.
“There’s a 50-50 chance this divorce is not happening,” Wasser told People on Monday. “His focus is on the best interest of his children. It’s not clear to me which way he’s going to turn on this issue.”

King is the host of the long running but ratings challenged CNN program Larry King Live.

Some claim nobody of any real importance shows up on Larry King live anymore except maybe Willie Nelson when he showed up stoned on pot and insisted on talking about pot.

Link