The AP’s David Bauder reports MSNBC has shelved plans for a new 10pmET show to follow Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. For now, a Countdown repeat will continue to air at 10pmET.
“We’re not going to mess with it until we see where it levels off,” MSNBC president Phil Griffin told Bauder. “It places the burden, if we are going to put a show there, (for it) to be a big show because the repeat of ‘Countdown’ is doing so well.”
The Countdown re-air has been averaging 902,000 Total Viewers while FNC’s Greta VanSusteren is averaging 2.1 million and CNN’s Anderson Cooper draws 1.2 million at 10pm. But the Olbermann rerun has topped AC360 in the A25-54 demo on some nights, including just last Friday.
When asked if he had anything to do with postponing the plans for a new 10pm show, Olbermann told TVNewser, “No, I didn’t have anything to do with it and honestly, I don’t think anything in the time frame of this process has changed.
The fact that the 10pm replay is more competitive now is obviously great news, but if a terrific opportunity for a new show presents itself tomorrow, management will move on it,” predicts Olbermann.
(h/t ICN)