This week marks the return of the man liberals love and conservatives love to hate to television Keith Olbermann, and now he is on Current TV and his boss is the one and only Al Gore.
After an extremely abrupt departure from MSNBC last fall, Keith had kept himself busy on Twitter and spent a short period of time teasing his fans about what he had planned to do next. When he announced his return to news all he had said was that it would be on Current, and it would be in late spring. Indeed, he managed late spring by premiering on the last day of spring.
I was very pleased watching the first episode Monday night. The music is the same, the attitude is ever present and with very few tweaks, this Countdown is essentially the same as the previous Countdown. I will admit to hoping that there would be something different but Im not complaining.
What I am most intrigued by is waiting to see what comes next. By that I mean, when Olbermann was at ESPN he created SportsCenter, which redefined what ESPN would become from then on. I would go so far as to say he recreated what sports casting is all about. When he departed ESPN, he moved onto Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. There, with his first Special Comment on the Iraq war and its illegal premise and G.W. Bushs illegal invasion, he redefined what MSNBC would become and still is. He created the liberal foil to Faux News. What will he do now that he has nearly complete control over content of not just his show, but of the news division at Current? Already, there is an incredible program called Vanguard immediately following Countdown which is keeping the same spirit alive throughout the evening and Im quite certain there will be more to come.
One of the humorous little asides in that first episode, and I understand for a couple more after that, was his glee in his ability to run a bit long if he so desired. So he went about 4 minutes past the hour. He has already corrected this due to the outcry that he was cutting into Rachel Maddows hour over on his old channel MSNBC. Now, he didnt have to do anything Im not sure he too crazy about MSNBC at this point but he is a gentleman (contrary to many peoples opinion) and is still a friend and fan of Ms. Maddows, so he will no longer run long so as not to interfere with his friends audience. What a guy!
My only gripe at this point, and one that Keith is in the process of trying to do something about and may not have any control over, is that the full audio (or video) podcast of the program is not yet available. Apparently this has something to do with the cable carriers of Current TV not with Current, and certainly not with Countdown. My hope is to get the podcast shortly seeing how trying to watch a news program at home with two young girls running around and wanting their programming instead of daddys boring political mumbo jumbo is damned near impossible plus I do my best to shield my girls from too much political banter. It can be so unseemly and I dont like them hearing what horrible things people say about the President and about other people in general. A great deal of the ugly in humans come out in politics they have time to see that crap.
So welcome back Keith Olbermann whether you love him or hate him, his is a major voice in the political arena and he has the wits, the intelligence and the bombast to rouse you from a political slumber. Its been a rough few months without him.
Worst person in the world,
Cornelius J. Blahg