Current TV, the earnest-but-little-viewed cable channel founded by Al Gore, has announced the new title for its version of Countdown With Keith Olbermann: It will be called Countdown With Keith Olbermann. It launches June 20.
If there’s news in the new/old title, I suppose you could interpret it as a signal of purpose for the new show: namely, that Olbermann intends to continue doing pretty much what he was doing at MSNBC, now on a new channel. Also, that evidently there was not any intellectual-property tie-up with MSNBC claiming to hold the rights.
And I was so looking forward to “A Numerical List Rendered Sequentially, With Keith Olbermann”!
Excerpts from the release follow:
CURRENT TV UNVEILS NAME, DEBUT DATE FOR NEW KEITH OLBERMANN SHOW“COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN” TO PREMIERE ON JUNE 20
AIRING EACH WEEK NIGHT AT 8 P.M. ET, “COUNTDOWN” WILL BE THE TV HOME FOR OLBERMANN’S UNIQUE VOICE AND COMMENTARY, ONLY ON INDEPENDENTLY OWNED CURRENT TV
NEW YORK – April 26, 2011 – Current TV, the Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning TV and digital network, will premiere its much-anticipated week-nightly commentary show with Keith Olbermann, the acclaimed broadcaster, writer and commentator, on June 20, 2011 AT 8 p.m. ET.
The show, to be called “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” marks the return to the airwaves for Olbermann, one of journalism’s most provocative and outspoken voices, on independently-owned Current, which was founded in 2005 by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt and is now distributed in more than 75 million households around the world.
Olbermann’s decision to join Current was announced in February. In addition to executive producing and hosting his show, Olbermann was appointed as Current’s Chief News Officer.
At the time of the announcement, Olbermann said, “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. In Current Media, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt have created the model truth-seeking entity. The opportunity to partner with Al, Joel and Mark Rosenthal makes this the most exciting venture in my career.”