Keith Olbermann has been fired from Current TV, just one year into his five-year, $50 million contract. Olbermann announced shortly after being notified of his termination he will be suing Current TV and its owners, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt. Former NY Governor Elliot Spitzer, who recently ended a stint at CNN, will be replacing the volatile Keith Olbermann.
In a letter (complete text, below,) to Current TV viewers signed by Al Gore & Joel Hyatt, the progressive pair stated their network was “founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers,” but added that, “Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”
For his part, Olbermann sent a response to viewers via Twitter that apologized “for the failure of Current TV.” Olbermann added:
It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently.
Davids Letterman’s Late Show just tweeted, “JUST ANNOUNCED: @KeithOlbermann will join Dave on the@Late_Show on Tuesday, April 3rd to talk about his departure from Current TV.”
Brian Steltzer at the New York Times reported:
To many in the television business, the separation was not a question of if, but when. Mr. Olbermann has a history of abruptly and angrily leaving jobs, dating back at least to his days at ESPN, where he was a co-anchor of “SportsCenter†in the 1990s.
Fourteen months ago, Mr. Olbermann abruptly left MSNBC, where he had worked for eight years. There, he nearly single-handedly gave the channel an identity as a liberal counterweight to Fox News — just as Current hoped he would do for it — but he also alienated staff members.
Executives at MSNBC had no public reaction on Friday to Mr. Olbermann’s departure from another channel. But Nielsen ratings demonstrate that Mr. Olbermann was not able to recreate his success there. In his 40 weeks on Current TV, he had an average of 177,000 viewers at 8 p.m., down from the roughly one million that he had each night on MSNBC. Just 57,000 of those viewers on any given night were between the ages of 25 and 54, the coveted advertising demographic for cable news. Still, Mr. Olbermann ranked as the highest-rated program on Current.
Speculation immediately turned on Friday to what Mr. Olbermann might or might not do next, given that he has moved jobs so many times in the past. Media critics and opponents of Mr. Olbermann’s cracked jokes online about public-access TV and door-to-door visits. For the moment, he at least has Twitter, where he has 377,000 followers.
Here’s the letter from Current TV to viewers:
To the Viewers of Current:
We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. Â 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.
We are moving ahead by honoring Current’s values. Current has a fundamental obligation to deliver news programming with a progressive perspective that our viewers can count on being available daily — especially now, during the presidential election campaign. Current exists because our audience desires the kind of perspective, insight and commentary that is not easily found elsewhere in this time of big media consolidation.
As we move toward this summer’s political conventions and the general election in the fall, Current is making significant new additions to our broadcasts. We have just debuted six hours of new programming each weekday with Bill Press (“Full Court Press” at 6 am ET/3 am PT) and Stephanie Miller (“Talking Liberally” at 9 am ET/6 pm PT).
We’re very excited to announce that beginning tonight, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will host “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer,†at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. Eliot is a veteran public servant and an astute observer of the issues of the day. He has important opinions and insights and he relishes the kind of constructive discourse that our viewers will appreciate this election year. We are confident that our viewers will be able to count on Gov. Spitzer to deliver critical information on a daily basis.
All of these additions to Current’s lineup are aimed at achieving one simple goal — the goal that has always been central to Current’s mission: To tell stories no one else will tell, to speak truth to power, and to influence the conversation of democracy on behalf of those whose voices are too seldom heard. We, and everyone at Current, want to thank our viewers for their continued steadfast support.
Sincerely,
Al Gore & Joel Hyatt
Current’s Founders
But tonight, after 9:00 PM, Current TV still had up the “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” page and logo.