The parties are pleased to announce that a settlement has occurred, and that the terms are confidential. Nothing more will be disclosed regarding the settlement.A joint statement from Keith Olbermann and Current TV • Discussing the settlement the two parties reached in the anchor’s lawsuit against the network. With the network changing hands in recent weeks, it’s possible Olbermann made out like a bandit here, as the lawsuit was for $50 million and the settlement came days after he filed court documents in an effort to receive a summary judgment. But we won’t know for sure unless Olbermann launches his own TV network.
For Mr. Spitzer, the amicable separation is unsurprising. Last spring, nine months after his CNN talk show was canceled, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt abruptly asked him to take over the 8 p.m. time slot on Current. The reason: the 8 p.m. host Keith Olbermann was about to be fired.
Mr. Spitzer was, by his own account, “thrilled” to do it, but it was never a full-time job, nor a long-term one. His contract expired after the presidential election in November.
Mr. Spitzer, who resigned the New York governorship in 2008 shortly after his liaisons with prostitutes were made public, is presumed by many people to harbor political ambitions. Asked if they were right to presume that, he said in a telephone interview, “Others presume I have the ambitions.” He laughed and added, “Let me leave it at that for now.”
Comedian John Fugelsang, who has become well-known as a political commentator in recent years, will replace Spitzer in the slot. As for other figures at the network, The Young Turks is open to staying on the network but is unsure if they’ll be sticking around, and Jay Leno mocked the new ownership, asking network personality Joy Behar, “Now what happened to Current TV? Osama bin Laden is your new boss?”
Shouldn’t it read, “Hey! We just bought Current TV”? Odd how networks break news about themselves, so take it from the Guardian.
Current TV is done. Al Jazeera is simply buying Current’s access to US cable operators. Al Gore will remain as an advisor to the new network. That should shake things up in the cable news scene.
Question for you guys: Does the fact that Time Warner Cable is dropping Current TV in the wake of this news signify any sort of unsavory motives on their part? It struck me as not a business decision (though that’s what they say, of course), but one critical of what Al Jazeera represents. The fact that the blackout took effect almost immediately after the deal was signed seems like a clear indicator of someone being really pissed that the deal happened at all.
(Source: newsflick)
A dozen people in the television business were interviewed for this article, but nearly all insisted on anonymity either for legal reasons or for fear of retaliation by Mr. Olbermann or their employers.The key line from Brian Stelter’s latest piece on Keith Olbermann’s departure from Current TV, which notes that even if Olbermann himself doesn’t stick around on a network, the host has a tendency for setting the tone of the network’s coverage — and inspiring hordes of followers in the process. The piece also talks about the challenges Current TV faces in its efforts to becoming a purely liberal network, suggesting that it’s trying to take the next step from Fox News and MSNBC, which mix news and opinion. Ratings suck, though, though they improved with Olbermann and his fellow anchors.
After conservatives compared comments he made about Michelle Malkin & S.E. Cupp to Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” comment, Current TV host Keith Olbermann announced that he would be canceling the “Worst Persons in the World” segment of his show. He says it might even be permanent this time. While he continued to deny that his comments were sexist, the host did promise to apologize to both of the conservative women during his announcement video. source
You can bet the family farm that Olbermann’s tenure at Current will end, sooner or later, the way Olbermann’s tenures usually do: with the host and his network only too happy to be rid of each other.Forbes’ Jeff Bercovici • Offering his take on what the future holds for Keith Olbermann, whose fortunes at Current TV have changed in recent weeks. Olbermann, angry about technical difficulties, is warring with his network again. Bercovici seems to think that it’s the beginning of the end for Olbermann at the network, who hosts the network’s most popular show, but on a network where the ratings are low enough where that doesn’t mean much. We’re willing to give him some more time before we call it done. Either way, it’s clear that he does not call the shots at the network, like he expected to. However, the network’s lineup of talkers — even without Olbermann — is starting to look pretty good, with Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks out of the bullpen and Jennifer Granholm on deck.
Earlier in the day, Keith Olbermann learned that Current TV had benched him for tonight’s Iowa Caucus coverage, choosing to go with other personalities as word of a fractured relationship surfaced. It was in this environment that Piers Morgan decided to throw a verbal molotov cocktail:
Cheer up @KeithOlbermann - you can catch all the big Iowa political news on my live show at midnight ET. #CNNElections
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 4, 2012
Which drew an entertaining response from Current TV:
@piersmorgan You go big. We’ll go best. #politicallydirect
— Current TV (@current) January 4, 2012
And a harsh one from Keith Olbermann himself:
Great! So you’ll be showing your latest subpoena? RT @piersmorgan Cheer up @KeithOlbermann you can catch all Iowa political news on my show
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) January 4, 2012
And it devolved from there. Mediaite has more.
Good for Current TV. Fascinating for her. Will it be enough to make Current TV a player against MSNBC, though?
Cenk Uygur Joining Current TV
Current TV has claimed another former MSNBC host: Cenk Uygur, who previously hosted “MSNBC Live,” will host “The Young Turks” ahead of Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown,” the network announced Tuesday. Reuters has more.
This is a very smart move for Current; Cenk’s departure from MSNBC was a frustrating move at the time, because he was one of the network’s biggest-rising stars for a while. Certainly more worth your time than Al Sharpton. Him and Keith Olbermann make a fairly dynamic duo as far as liberal talking heads go.
Stop us if you think that you’ve heard this one before. Current TV’s newest star will start his show on June 20th, and will take the name of the show Olbermann hosted at MSNBC. Who can’t wait?
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You know, Keith is great and everything, but this loses a lot without the multiple cameras, the shiny graphics, and the dramatic music. He also has a special comment up. When not in a newsroom, the Murrow stuff doesn’t really work quite so well, sadly. So when does he start at Current TV again?
Well, there’s the tease. Olbermann’s coming to Current TV, meaning that now Keith has an outlet that’s going to basically let him do what he wants. He also becomes the network’s “Chief News Officer,” meaning that rather than fighting with Phil Griffin, he effectively is Phil Griffin. source
Keith Olbermann, the former top-rated host of on the news channel MSNBC, will announce his next television home on Tuesday, and people familiar with his plans pointed Monday to a possible deal with the public affairs channel Current TV.
Current TV? Someone’s getting an instant ratings boost!
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