Well, I don't know. But by lunchtime tomorrow, we'll find out.
Justwhen you thought you were going to get a vacation from Keith Olbermann, a publicist has sent out word that Keith is holding a news conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday to make an "exciting announcement" regarding the "next chapter in his remarkable career."
Yesterday, Huffington Post merged with AOL, and thisspeculation from conservative site Hot Air makes some sense:
So let’s see. It might involve TV of some sort; it’s happening two days after the big AOL/HuffPo merger was announced; and Arianna specifically said in her post today about the deal, "Original video? AOL’s just finished building a pair of state-of-the-art video studios in New York and LA, and video views on AOL have gone up 400 percent over the last year." Olby, of course, is based in New York and has had Arianna on as a guest multiple times.
To that end, Mediaite notes this:
Update: A Mediaite tipster points out that a simple whois search reveals that the domain names "theolbermannshow.com" and "thekeitholbermannshow.com" were registered January 19th, 2011, just two days before his last appearance on MSNBC.
Of course, anyone can register any domain (the sites were registered through a proxy). On the other hand, fromTVNewser, speculation he could be finding his way back to television:
Variety’s Cynthia Littleton, who is connected on the west coast entertainment scene, contacted Olbermann’s reps at ICM. What did they say?
@Variety_Cynthia: "Only guidance is that we shouldn’t assume that it won’t involve TV."
As we know, MSNBC's ratings have declined since Keith Olbermann exited. But I can't see where else he could wind up on the dial. He would be good for CNN's 8pm ratings, but bad for the brand. Maybe CNN's HLN, perhaps filling the opinionated news host role once held by a Philadelphia talk show host named Glenn Beck. That too seems like a longshot. Maybe he'll wind up at a less-prominent cable outlet like IFC, Sundance(which once aired Al Franken's radio show) or Current, which could probably use the buzz. Or HBO, which already has a popular left-wing talk show.
Somespeculated that Olbermann might go the talk radio route, but he never had any guests who disagreed with him. Come to think of it, neither do most radio talk show hosts.
Either way, he can't go back on television for at least six months.
Stay tuned!