TVNewser has learned Donny Deutsch, who’d been filling in on the 3pmET hour this week on MSNBC, won’t be anchoring for the rest of the week after a segment yesterday seemed to criticize his colleague Keith Olbermann.
This week, Deutsch has been calling his show “American the Angry.” Yesterday, he played a clip of various radio and TV talkers in all their anger — including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann.
Adding insult to insult, Deutsch’s guest, radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, then called Olbermann and Ed Schultz, “the biggest hate mongers on television.”
Deutsch responded, “I’m not taking the side of either one.”
TVNewser has learned MSNBC president Phil Griffin talked with Deutsch and the show’s producer and expressed his disappointment with the segment (clip after the jump).
An MSNBC spokesperson tells us Deutsch was going to be off the rest of this week due to a personal issue.
> More: Insiders tell us Deutsch was planning on being on the air as of this morning. Guests, including Andrew Ross Sorkin, Pat Buchanan and the CEO of Spirit Airlines, had been booked. We also hear the EP of the show was sent home this morning. And bookings were already being worked on for tomorrow.
> More, More: Olbermann responds about his involvement: “What I know of what happened is this: Phil Griffin phoned me yesterday enraged at what was on that show and I didn’t disagree with him.” Olbermann himself will be off his show for the next two days. “Colonoscopy, nothing wrong, just a new fact of life after my late Dad’s issues,” he tells TVNewser.
> More, More, More: Without confirming his removal from the network, Deutsch tells NYT‘s Brian Stelter: “For whatever reason they decided they didn’t want to go with it the rest of the week. I was disappointed because I think I’m on to something really special here that needs to be done.”
> Earlier: MSNBC Boss to Staff: “We Do Not Publicly Criticize Our Colleagues”