Olbermann: I Was $10M Chandelier Without a Home

Keith Olbermann compared his ill-fated run at Current TV to being a "$10 million chandelier" without a house, on the Late Show last night. Olbermann declined a chance to bash Al Gore, saying instead: "I screwed up really big on this." But he clearly dissed Current TV by adding: "If you buy a $10 million chandelier, you should have a house to put it in. Just walking around with a $10 million chandelier isn’t going to do anybody a lot of good, and it’s not going to do any good to the chandelier. It turned out we didn't have a lot to put the house on to put the chandelier in, or a building permit."

Olbermann said he was thinking of jumping ship as early as last July, complaining that lights, cars, and basic services did not work, but that he didn't leave because of his 25-person staff. "We’d been on the air about 10 days and they fired the guy who knew what he was doing who I worked for and I went, ‘Uh-oh,’” said Olbermann. Not everyone shares Olbermann's interpretation of the situation. "It looks more like Olbermann never really gave the new gig a shot," writes Mediaite. "He liked the idea of being a big fish in a little pond, until he saw just how little the pond was." Then it got worse when he started getting beat by Current TV host Cenk Uygur in the 25-54 demographic. (More Keith Olbermann stories.)