Chat Rock or 3CP1? Where Does MSNBC Go From Here?
At Newsbusters, Noel Sheppard looks at MSNBC’s middling ratings and ponders Keith Olbermann’s next move:
Certainly, MSNBC’s numbers have improved in the past couple of years, but I’m not sure going from last to a very distant second in a three man race is something to brag about.
As I noted Saturday, I doubt the folks at Comcast, who as of last Tuesday have actual ownership of MSNBC, feel averaging 834,000 viewers per hour during extended prime time is all that spectacular when Fox News is doing almost 2 million.
But Morrissey offered an interesting speculation about Olbermann’s future writing, “A return to sports might be in the offing, although with bridges burned at both ESPN and NBC and his years-long animus towards Fox, there aren’t many options there either.”
A self-proclaimed media insider made the same observation at the far-left website Daily Kos Friday:
It will happen (so I’m told) on the channel now known as Versus. It’s a sports channel owned by Comcast, and the story I’m hearing is that it will be rebranded as NBC Sportschannel once the takeover is complete, with Keith as its star personality.
If Comcast was going to move Olbermann to its own sports channel, why would they humiliate him this way first?
Further refuting this speculation is that according to the New York Post, the former “Countdown” host was offered his full multi-million dollar salary throughout the remainder of his contract to leave. If he were just being moved to another Comcast property, wouldn’t they have renegotiated his existing contract rather than buying him out?
Whatever the answer, as the late Ed Hart used to say, we will know where Olbermann ends up in the fullness of time.
But where does MSNBC go in the post-Olbermann era? That depends on which direction that channel wishes to pursue to revive its perpetually flagging ratings. One way to temper the channel’s hard left politics would be to add a dose of fine Aussie-style harmonies, creating — at last! — the Cop Rock of political chat shows (hat tip: Ricochet):
Perhaps though, MSNBC is considering moving even further to the left. If so, sclerotic builders of Communism are ever-eager to go forth once again toward the new heights in propaganda and broadcasting!
He’ll sign some minor deal with something like Mark Cuban’s HD Net while probably starting up his own left wing website that will end up feuding with the HuffPo and Kos as much as it does with any conservative web addresses (though I expect Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller to be a special target of Olby). And maybe if someone at CBSSports.com or majorleaguebaseball.com is dumb enough to hire him as an expert sports analyist, he’ll get a spot there, too (and they’ll get thousands of nasty phone calls and e-mails).
Whatever happens, the land shall also be awash in hype the day Keith’s media return arrives, but after that, what? If he wants to stay in the political commentary world, he can’t even do a Bill Maher-like show, because as odious as some of Maher’s remarks are, at least he does allow conservative panelists on his show. Olby can’t even handle a line-up of three-liberals-vs.-one-conservative, so that severely limits his talking head punditry options, save finding another network willing to give him a full hour to rant with only syncopatic guests as part of the line-up.
I think MSNBC could vastly improve its ratings by showing more of those SCTV reruns.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-comcast-can-make-msnbc-into-ratings.html
HOW COMCAST CAN MAKE MSNBC INTO A RATINGS POWERHOUSE
MSNBC is also known as MSDNC and MSLSD and MFNBC- and for good reasons. During prime-time, MSNBC broadcasts a solid line-up of hardcore leftist programs hosted by leftists. Because the USA is NOT mostly left-wing, this guarantees low ratings.
This can be changed – easily.
Here’s a schedule I think COMCAST should switch to: Make prime-time all debate – and all FEMALE – with HOSTESSES who are BOTH right-wing and left-wing. My suggestions:
* 8-9PM: “SOFT POWER” – WITH RACHEL MADDOW, KIRSTEN POWERS & PEGGY NOONAN
* 9-10PM: “CAPITAL IDEAS” – WITH MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA AND CONSUELO MACK
* 10-11PM: “EXECUTIVE SUITE” – WITH MARIA SHRIVER AND CARLY FIORINA
Comcast will make changes, that’s for sure…
I seriously doubt Olberdouche is going to Versus. It broadcasts mostly alternative and less popular sports like bike racing, lumberjack contests, full contact fighting, etc. as well as a lot of popular hard core hunting and fishing programs. It doesn’t do the big three sports, which if Olberdouche actually knew anything about them, would likely be his niche. I stopped watching the Sunday NFL games on NBC because they let that creep stink up the commentators set. I hope he goes to HDNet or some other backwater like Dan Rather where he’ll never be heard from again. Better yet, I hope he never appears on TV again. No one would miss him.