TVNewser has obtained an internal memo from NBC News SVP Phil Griffin, congratulating the MSNBC staff for a "fantastic week," which included an A25-54 demo victory for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at 8pmET on Thursday night.

Countdown finished with 458,000 viewers in the demo, while The O'Reilly Factor on FNC was second with 441,000. Countdown also won the demo as the lead-in to the Democratic debate on Tuesday night.

Griffin wrote in the memo, "Thursday night COUNTDOWN beat Bill O'Reilly, won the 8pm timeslot, and was the highest rated program on cable news."

Although Countdown was the highest rated program in the demo on Thursday, six shows on FNC had more Total Viewers than Countdown, including the Factor repeat at 11pmET.

Griffin certainly looked to spread the good news about the big week — besides sending the memo to everyone at MSNBC, NBC News President Steve Capus and NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker were cc'ed.

Click continued to see the full memo...

From: Griffin, Phil (NBC Universal)
To: @MSNBC Everyone
CC: Zucker, Jeff (NBC Universal); Capus, Steve (NBC Universal)
Sent: Fri Feb 29 19:05:52 2008
Subject: Big Night for Countdown

This has been a fantastic week for MSNBC.

Thursday night COUNTDOWN beat Bill O'Reilly, won the 8pm timeslot, and was the highest rated program on cable news. COUNTDOWN is such a well produced program and these ratings reflect the great work Keith, Izzy, and everyone on that staff puts into the show. You all should be proud.

COUNTDOWN's success Thursday night caps off the best week ever at MSNBC.

Congratulations to them, and everyone at MSNBC and NBC News.

Phil