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Countdown with Keith Olbermann

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File:23olbermannplug.jpg
A screen-shot from a commercial for Countdown.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long nightly newscast on MSNBC which airs live at 8:00 PM Eastern time and reruns at midnight. The show, hosted by Keith Olbermann, debuted on March 31, 2003 and counts down the top news stories of the day with news reports and interviews with guests.

The show is notable for Olbermann's elaborate writing style, fast-paced delivery, historical and pop culture references, and signature witty interjections, which make Countdown more colorful than average newscasts. Olbermann interleaves serious news stories with humorous segments.

Pattern of a typical episode

  • #5 story
  • commercial break
  • #4 story
  • commercial break
  • Oddball (offbeat news stories and videos, named as a play on Hardball with Chris Matthews, which precedes Countdown)
  • Countdown's "Top 3 newsmakers of this day"
  • commercial break
  • #3 story
  • Top 3 Soundbites of the day.(Shown occasionally)
  • commercial break
  • #2 story
  • "Keeping Tabs", celebrity and tabloid news
  • Countdown's Worst Person in the World (First shown May 2005)
  • commercial break
  • #1 story

Signature Style

Each night, Olbermann begins with "Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?" and signs off with "That's Countdown, thanks for being part of it. Keep your knees loose. Good night and good luck," then crumples up his notes and throws them at the camera. The lens then appears to shatter (made possible by a digital effect) and, after July 2005, revealing Rita Cosby on Rita Cosby: Live & Direct

On Fridays, the show previously featured "What Have We Learned?" in which Olbermann attempts to answer questions based on the stories he had reported over the past week. This has now been replaced with his top stories of the week, frequently repeats of Oddball clips.

During the Michael Jackson trial, Countdown presented renactments of the day's courtroom scenes simply entitled Michael Jackson Puppet Theatre. These quirky scenes that represented events that Countdown was able to draw from that days' courtroom summariess. Countdown employees handled the puppets while Keith himself recorded the voices. After the trial ended, it was announced that Puppet Theatre would be used for other events.

Guests

Guest commentators regularly featured on the show include:

For more guests, see: Olbermann.org's Countdown Guest Index, a comprehensive list of Countdown guests linked to relevant official transcripts.

Other

While other MSNBC shows such as Scarborough Country, The Abrams Report and Hardball with Chris Matthews consist mainly of opinion and analysis, Countdown is a nightly newscast, covering major national and international stories. Clips from NBC network news broadcasts are featured on a regular basis. Olbermann typically treats guests on the show courteously, eschewing the aggressive style of interrogation employed by some of his competitors and colleagues.

According to The Cornell Daily Sun, Olbermann has a staff of roughly 10 to 12 people who work on the show. They spend the morning looking for noteworthy or interesting stories. The group meets via conference call at 11:00 AM for a half-hour discussion to toss around possible subjects for the evening's show (many times pulling information from online sites like Fark.com). By 12:15, Olbermann receives a final list of story prospects, picks what he likes, and puts them in order. He emails the list back to the staff, and the writing process begins. He arrives at MSNBC's studios in Secaucus, New Jersey by 2PM and works on writing the show's material in his office until 7:30, when he goes to makeup, before going on air at 8 PM.

External links