Keith Olbermann Is Bringing ‘Countdown’ Back as Daily Podcast With iHeartMedia
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Keith Olbermann will be dishing on politics, sports and more in new daily podcast debuting next week.
The former MSNBC anchor, ESPN host and author is teaming with iHeartMedia to launch “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” billed as a news-driven show featuring his trademark “Special Comment” political analysis, “The Worst Persons in the World” segment, and readings from the works of the humorist James Thurber. The series launches Aug. 1 on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other major audio platforms.
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It’s meant to be a podcast version of “Countdown,” the show he hosted on MSNBC from 2003 to January 2011. In 2010, MSNBC suspended Olbermann for making donations to Democratic candidates, violating a policy that requires news personnel to get permission before doing so. The relationship ended abruptly when Olbermann left MSNBC in 2011 for an ill-fated stint at Current, a startup cable-news outlet launched in part by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
The upcoming podcast’s “Worst Persons in the World” daily roundup is “back by unpopular demand,” Olbermann says in the show’s trailer, to highlight “miscreants, stinkers, rascals, reprobates, racists, fascists and party-poopers, sometimes meant seriously and sometimes not so much.”
In addition to bringing back fan favorites from “Countdown,” Olbermann will broaden the content to include a regular sports segment and a daily call to help a suffering dog. Olbermann also will share a series of anecdotes from his career spanning his coverage of the 1980 Olympic Miracle on Ice one month after his 21st birthday to anchoring the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and the 2009 Super Bowl pre-game show in a span of just 12 days.
Olbermann, 63, teases in the trailer that, “since this is a podcast,” he’ll share stories about “the things I promised not to tell about my career and life, usually about some old boss of mine or when I dated Laura” — Ingraham, the Fox News host — “so at least you’ll know it wasn’t all my fault.”
Olbermann has been a sports and news anchor, reporter and commentator since 1976. In addition to his work on CNN, ESPN Radio, ESPN2, MSNBC, Fox Sports Net and RKO Radio, and has also hosted news, politics and pports programming for ABC, CBS, Conde Nast, Hearst, Tribune and UPI. He is the winner of three Edward R. Murrow Awards and the author of six books.
Listen to the trailer for “Countdown With Keith Olbermann”:
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