There was no way Keith Olbermann was going to sit on the sidelines during the 2016 presidential election, right? While we wait for Olbermann to hopefully find another outlet for his sports commentary, he’s got his platform for politics. And just in time, with less than 60 days before our country elects its 44th president.
Olbermann will host a bi-weekly web series for GQ.com titled “The Closer with Keith Olbermann,” with the first episode set to debut Tuesday (Sept. 13) at 8 a.m. ET. (Maybe Olbermann can keep that title and refashion the series for baseball next season.) GQ has given him the title of election Special Correspondent, and as you could surely expect, he’s taking aim at Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Check out the teaser GQ posted for The Closer:
Meet GQ's new election Special Correspondent: @KeithOlbermann https://t.co/QXP4qOxnR4
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) September 12, 2016
“We’re past Labor Day, and he still hasn’t fled for the Cayman Islands yet.” Yes, we will very likely watch this space. (As of this writing, GQ.com is having some difficulty with Olbermann’s intro. Hopefully, that’s resolved by Tuesday morning. Or you don’t care because of the Rihanna video the magazine posted as a placeholder.) Olbermann told The Hollywood Reporter’s Marisa Guthrie that the first segment will be 16 minutes.
It’s not difficult to imagine that a sizable amount of people wince at the visual of Olbermann sitting in the Oval Office. But considering that many have the same reaction to the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency, that is surely the intended effect.
Olbermann has been off the TV airwaves since leaving ESPN last summer, though there were rumblings that MSNBC attempted to bring him back to cover the 2016 election. (Olbermann reportedly didn’t like the terms NBC News was proposing.) So he needed to find a place to let Keith be Keith. GQ seems like a pretty good spot for that. As a representative explained to Politico’s Joe Pompeo, “He’ll be providing commentary on the election, with the flexibility to delve into other timely issues when relevant.”
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About Ian Casselberry
Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.