Olbermann Experiencing Post-NBC Bounce?

As attested to by the fact that two diaries on Countdown's NBC debut were top rated on this site last week (OK, OK, yes one was by yours truly), there's been a lot of excitement generated 'round these here parts that Keith's unique brand of hard-hitting, don't-take-the-B.S.-talking-points news combined with eyerolling jabs at our pop culture would reach a larger audience and win more converts.

And indeed, the first objective was met when we learned that Countdown's Sunday audience was 4.1 million viewers.

But was the second objective met? Follow me below the fold as we look at the early numbers...

I regularly follow Media Bistro's TV Newser blog, and am used to, as of late, seeing Countdown's overall audience around 3/4 of a million, with around 225-275m in core demo viewership (the stat the ad people are expecially interested in). So, how did the show fare on Monday?

Overall, the audience was on the high-end of typical,registering 776m total viewers. But look at the core demo for that night: 315m!

Not too shabby. But was this just a bounce from the network show that would level off?

Tuesday's night's rating say: Naw. Core demo viewership was a relatively mellow 251m, but overall viewership was a healthy 787m. Hmmm--what to make of this?

Then came Wednesday's ratings. Core demo? A vivacious 299m. Overall?--974m.

Yes, almost one million viewers.

For extra fun, look at Keith's core demo numbers vs. O'Falafel. Pay special heed to Wednesday's numbers, where Countdown comes shy by only six thousand viewers.

Where does it go from here? And will it result in enough of an increase to prompt the network suits to give Countdown another shot on the peacock?

Stay tuned...