Keith Olbermann is responding to the news that Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker will compete against him in the 8PM hour on CNN.
"As to Governor Spitzer and Ms. Parker, as they replace my old co-host Campbell as she replaced my friend Roland as he replaced Campbell as she replaced my old guest host Rick as he replaced Campbell as she replaced my old colleague Paula as she replaced my buddy Connie: best of luck," Olbermann told the Huffington Post.
Olbermann's comment underscores the number of CNN competitors he and rival Bill O'Reilly have outlasted at 8PM. "Countdown" launched on MSNBC in April 2003.
Olbermann also responded to Greta Van Susteren's comment that the new show will be bad news for "Countdown."
"CNN just announced that it has a new 8pm show coming up with Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer. This is bad news for Keith Olbermann since if CNN is to be successful, it will have to draw viewers from Keith Olbermann's viewers," Van Susteren wrote on her blog. The total number of cable news viewers seems to be a limited number so they have to grab from Olberman [sic]."
Olbermann's response: "Since Greta agrees with me that Countdown's the only news show not on CNN at 8 PM, I guess she's right."
Van Susteren also explained why she exempted O'Reilly from her analysis:
(You might ask why I don't mention above Bill O'Reilly whose FNC's O'Reilly Factor also airs at 8pm? That's obvious -- O'Reilly is SO FAR AHEAD OF EVERYONE IN ALL OF CABLE NEWS that NO ONE can lay a glove on him. No one even tries to compete with O'Reilly so I don't include him in this discussion! O'Reilly dominates the cable news business. He has been #1 - by a giant margin - in ALL of cable for almost 10 years. )