Count Up or Countdown?

A special edition of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann aired last night on the mothership at NBC. The hour-long network special, broadcast at 7pm, finished fourth in the time period in Total Viewers according to fast-national ratings.

Olbermann’s first network special in August finished third in Total Viewers, but last night’s special eclipsed the rating figure by about 10%.

Olbermann competed with the end of the Kansas-Davidson NCAA Tournament game and the beginning of 60 Minutes on CBS (14,730,000 viewers), America’s Funniest Home Videos on ABC (8,270,000) and King of the Hill and American Dad on FOX (3,770,000). Countdown finished with 3,370,000 viewers.

Also, compared to Dateline last week at 7pmET, NBC was down 43%. Still, the program brought in more than triple what Countdown averages in Total Viewers on MSNBC, which is averaging 1,038,000 viewers in the first quarter of 2008.

An NBC insider tells TVNewser, “We’re thrilled with the additional exposure Countdown has received on the network.”

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