Keith Olbermann: Current Won't Pay $50 Million Deal, Cites Breach, Sabotage, Disparagement
Hollywood Reporter ^ | March 30, 2012 | Marisa Guthrie
Posted on April 1, 2012 6:39:40 AM EDT by Zakeet
Keith Olbermann was informed Thursday morning that Current was terminating its five-year, $50 million contract with its star anchor.
The network sent an e-mail to Olbermann’s agent, Nick Khan at ICM, on Thursday morning stating that Olbermann was being let go for “material, serial breach of contract” and informed him that Eliot Spitzer would take Countdown’s 8 p.m. time slot effective immediately. (Spitzer will keep Olbermann’s staff and film his show, Viewpoint, out of the same Manhattan studio.)
According to knowledgeable sources, the issues were Olbermann’s repeated unauthorized absences as well as “sabotaging the network” and “attacking Current and its executives.”
Current has asserted that Olbermann missed 19 out of 41 working days in January and February. Then on Monday, Feb. 27, Olbermann asked for a vacation day on the following Monday, March 5, one day before the Super Tuesday GOP primaries. Olbermann was told that he could not have the day off, and if he took it, he would be in breach of contract. He took the day off. But he was on the air the following day for Current’s Super Tuesday coverage.
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A statement from Gore and Hyatt announcing Olbermann's termination underscored the personal animosity between the two parties: "Current was … founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately, these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann, and we have ended it.”
Olbermann responded with his own statement laying the blame for the dispute on Current executives. ... “It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current's statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently.”
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