[Updated] Current TV gets hot with Keith Olbermann hire

By Lisa de Moraes



Olbermann. (AP)

Keith Olbermann announced Tuesday he will host a new nightly news and commentary show on Current TV -- the liberal public affairs network co-founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt.

Additionally, Olbermann will serve as the company's Chief News Officer.

"Nothing is more vital to a free America than a free media and nothing is more vital to my concept of a free media than news produced independently of corporate interference," Olbermann said at the top of Tuesday's phone conference call with the press.

Olbermann abruptly exited MSNBC in January in the midst of his contract with the NBC Universal-owned cable news net; neither party will discuss details of that exit but it was presumed Olbermann would be barred from returning to TV for some period.

Olbermann will, in fact, be able to return to TV late this spring in a primetime one-hour show airing each weekday, former vice president Gore announced during the phone news conference.

Olbermann, smelling trouble when someone on the conference call asked about a report he'd left MSNBC with the basics of this Current TV deal in place, jumped in quickly and said, firmly, "everything you see here is because of events that began Saturday, Jan. 22 of this year." Olbermann left MSNBC on Jan. 21.

Being Chief News Officer means Olbermann will provide editorial guidance for Current TV's primetime slate, which will be overhauled to better complement Olbermann's new show; he will exec produce other programming for the primetime lineup. Everyone Current TV-related on the call declined to discuss any other plans for the overhauled primetime slate.

Asked about the wisdom of switching from the more established MSNBC to Current, Gore noted that when Olbermann returned to MSNBC in spring of 2003, it had around 58 million domestic subscribers, whereas Current currently has 60 million domestic subs and a total of 75 million worldwide.

Olbermann said his as yet unnamed new show "will be for all intents and purposes an improved and amplified and stronger version of the show I just did at [MSNBC]."

Asked if he planned to migrate his Worst Person in the World segment from "Countdown" to his new show, Olbermann said he planned to do something similar because "calling people out is, well, part of my DNA" but added that "that phrase - worst person in the world -- was unfortunately...deliberately, by some of the recipients of the honor, taken too seriously" so the name would be different.

One reporter asked Olbermann whether he thought he was advertiser friendly and to name advertisers who liked his program. Olbermann demured, but Gore jumped in and began to rattle off the names of blue-chip advertisers already buying time on Current TV and added that he was looking forward to speaking with the advertisers who had demonstrated over the years their endorsement of Olbermann's various shows as being advertiser friendly. That seemed to put an end to that line of talk.



In Current TV, Olbermann said, the founders have "created the model truth-seeking entity," calling it "truly the most exciting venture in my career."



The network is distributed in more than 75 million households around the world.



In addition to executive producing and hosting the new nightly primetime news and commentary show, Olbermann will also serve as the company's Chief News Officer and will have an equity stake in Current Media.

Greetings from Keith Olbermann, Chief News Officer of Current Media! And awayyyyyy we go! #FOK Keith Olbermann

KeithOlbermann

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