Reruns are working for MSNBC

NEW YORK — MSNBC will continue airing Keith Olbermann's talk show twice each weeknight in prime time, putting on indefinite hold a search for a new 10 p.m. (8 p.m. Mountain Time)program.

That time slot has attracted attention ever since MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin suggested earlier this year he was on the lookout for a new show.

Fans of the Internet show "The Young Turks" and of Air America's Sam Seder have openly campaigned for their favorites.

MSNBC currently reruns Olbermann's "Countdown" show only an hour after its original airing ends. It trails Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren and CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" in the ratings, but MSNBC executives have been surprised at its showing.

Fox has 2.1 million viewers, on average, in the time slot in March. Cooper on CNN has 1.2 million and Olbermann has 902,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. On a handful of nights, a rerun of Olbermann has even beaten a live Cooper in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic that MSNBC watches most closely.

MSNBC may give up entirely on the idea of putting a new live show in that time slot, Griffin said.

"We're not going to mess with it until we see where it levels off," he said. "It places the burden, if we are going to put a show there, (for it) to be a big show because the repeat of 'Countdown' is doing so well."

The statistics have taken MSNBC by surprise. Griffin said it seems many viewers who are putting children to bed or are otherwise busy at 8 p.m. prefer to watch at 10.

NBC News has a big financial incentive to keep things the way they are. It costs the network nothing to show the rerun, while a new program would cost millions of dollars for on-air talent and production costs.

EASY BEING GREEN: NBC Universal says it saved $2 million last year by going green.

The media giant has been promoting environmentally friendly efforts on its TV shows and in practice, looking for reduced power costs and telling its executives to lay off the bottled water.

The company says its polls show NBC's image as a "green" network is being recognized by viewers. Although it hasn't translated into ratings success, the company believes it's a smart strategy for the future.