Countdown to Big Ratings - KO interview in TV Guide

not sure I approve of the headline to this article...

http://www.tvguide.com/news-views/columnists/the-biz/default.aspx

Thursday, February 22, 2007
Countdown to Big Ratings
Keith Olbermann reflects on how the war has been good for his show
Keith Olbermann courtesy MSNBC PhotoKeith Olbermann

War hasn't been hell for Keith Olbermann. As President Bush's poll ratings have declined in response to his handling of the Iraq situation, the ratings for Olbermann's nightly MSNBC newscast Countdown have shot up. The irreverent anchor recently signed on to front the cable news channel's most-watched show for another four years. NBC News sweetened the pot by giving him occasional essays on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and two prime time specials each year on the big network. The Biz asked Olbermann to reflect on his recent success and his new deal.

TVGuide.com: Countdown's ratings have built a lot over the year. Do you think it had something to with MSNBC finally sticking with a show for more than a few months?
Keith Olberman: There were 17 different alignments between my two tenures at 8 pm on MSNBC. I did it from 1997 to 1998. I left. I came back four years ago on a fill-in basis and we made it Countdown, they had had 17 different programs .

TVGuide.com: A growing number of people are upset and aggravated about the war in Iraq. Do you think viewers see Countdown as a place they can get news about the war that is a little more attuned to their sentiments?
Olbermann: I don't know the exact mix. Clearly in the last year and a half, the people to whom I'm beholden are George Bush, Bill O'Reilly, Dan Patrick and people at Nielsen who decided to include DVR ratings in cable TV ratings. We're the most DVR'd show in cable news. We had growth from that. But in terms of the sensibility regarding the war, I think the public is still ahead of us, slightly, and way ahead of the politicians. But from the beginning on May 1, 2003, I interviewed Chris Matthews right after the whole "Mission Accomplished" nonsense, and he was fulsome about it and portrayed it fairly correctly in what it would be perceived as.… I said, "Wait a minute. Long-term? What about the fact that you have this country that doesn't have a government right now and we have no real post-war plan in our pocket. Is this premature?" This has been a steady attitude. It's obviously gotten louder, and what a fatal boondoggle it's been. It's been an ever-increasing element of the show, and it culminated last year with "Special Comments."

TVGuide.com: One of your predecessors, Phil Donahue, was an early critic of the war and was canceled when he had the highest ratings on MSNBC.
Olbermann: He was the highest-rated show on the network. But there were two things people leave out of the equation. I would be the first person to scream about bias against a liberal point of view anytime — or a bias against a conservative point of view. When the show started in Secaucus, New Jersey, nobody watched. When they put him in New York with a studio audience, the ratings increased; unfortunately, the cost doubled. The staff was twice the size as mine. It was very expensive to produce for a "we don't want to put a lot of cash into it" branch of the industry. That memo about him being too liberal at a time of war — it really was a straw on a very laden camel's back. There was a consideration there, but it was marginal.

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