Two years after his surprising return, Keith Olbermann is out at ESPN.
ESPN announced Wednesday that it is parting ways with Olbermann, whose contract expires July 31. His eponymous ESPN2 show will end sometime in the coming weeks. The news was initially reported by Those Guys Have All the Fun writer James Andrew Miller.
The announcement was not unexpected, as ESPN and Olbermann had been in contentious contract negotiations. Last week, a story in the The Hollywood Reporter indicated that ESPN wanted Olbermann to limit his on-air commentary as part of said negotiations — a claim flatly denied by the network.
Recent reporting in The Big Lead has indicated that ESPN is seeking to cut down talent costs, and the network said as much a statement Wednesday: “While the show’s content was distinctive and extremely high quality, we ultimately made a business decision to move in another direction.”
Olbermann returned to ESPN in 2013, sixteen years after his initial stint with the network ended acrimoniously. He was one of three big name hires ESPN made that year, along with Jason Whitlock and Nate Silver. Of those three, Silver is the last remaining in the role for which he was hired. Those hires were made to counter the perceived impact of the new Fox Sports 1, which never became the threat that was anticipated.
While Olbermann’s return generated many headlines, his profile steadily shrank during his two years with ESPN. His ESPN2 show went from one hour at 11 PM ET to a half-hour at 5 PM, and his occasional SportsCenter essays fizzled out rather quickly as well.
ESPN, it should be noted, is taking great pains to avoid the perception of an ugly divorce. The network called Olbermann a “tremendous talent,” his work “timely, entertaining and thought-provoking,” and predicted “that his skill and ability will lead him to another promising endeavor.”
(Wed. news from twitter.com/jimmiller [1], [2]; additional info from The Big Lead)
