KO on NBC: Let's play softball

In a phoner with reporters last week, Keith Olbermann promised that his special network version of "Countdown," which aired last night, would not be any different that any "Countdown" he does for MSNBC. But that wasn't true. My guess is that someone at NBC convinced Olbermann that for his first appearance as a newsman on the network it would be a good idea to take his hard-edged, hard-headed approach to "Countdown" and, well, soften it up a bit.

KO is a smart guy, but that was not a smart move.

I understand that audiences might be unfamiliar with Olbermann's program, and could find the full-spectrum, serious-to-silly coverage that is "Countdown's" specialty a tad disconcerting. But I felt it was unwise and, ultimately, condescending to bring on both Mo Rocca and the guy who hosts "The Soup" for separate segments. This on a night when KO was already altering his program to include a cold open (explaining to network viewers expecting to see Chris Hansen shaking down Internet sex fiends what they were about to see instead) and a football segment at the end, leading into NBC's "Football Night in America," on which Olbermann now also toils.

Rocca seemed a particularly inappropriate choice for mid-show, a time when "Countdown" is usually bearing down on some vital but overlooked story of national import. Referring to recently posted photographs of Russian president Vladimir Putin out in the wild, shirtless, Rocca joked that there was another picture of Putin in "assless chaps." Much as he did with "Smoking Gun TV" (remember that car wreck?), Rocca brought "Countdown" way down. Combine that with an extended "Oddball" segment of wacky videos, an E! promo AND a segment on football ... well, let's just say last night's "Countdown" was more like broth than soup.

During the last segment, featuring two of KO's new colleagues on "Football Night," Bob Costas was a pro as usual. But Cris Collinsworth, who has apparently never seen Olbermann's show before, felt the need to preface one of his responses with a retort to the previous segment: "Is Rush Limbaugh really the worst person in the world? Really?" KO, trying not to look irritated, shot back that he merely nominates worst people. Hey Cris, save the towel snapping for your own show, OK? They call you a "guest" for a reason -- act like one.  And buy a DVR while you're at it.

As for the host, he seemed unflappable as usual. But I wouldn't be surprised if KO didn't do some Monday morning quarterbacking of his special network "Countdown."  I hope he watches the tape of his main competition last night, "60 Minutes," on CBS. "60" had three repeat stories with new intros. In the first, Morley Safer interviewed the nurse charged with killing four seriously ill patients two years ago in a hospital in the middle of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Next, Scott Pelley interviewed Iraqis who are being hunted down and killed because they assisted U.S. troops during the ouster of Saddam Hussein -- and are getting no protection now from the U.S. government. And then there was a happy ending to a story about MIT's Nicholas Negroponte's crusade to give every poor child in the world a laptop computer -- as we learned after the segment, Negroponte and his erstwhile rivals at Intel Corp. are getting together to produce the low-cost PCs. There was even time for some levity at the end, as tape of two ancient Mike Wallace interviews were played: one with Brooke Astor, the other with Leona Helmsley, both of whom died last week. Andy Rooney rummaging through all the kitchen tools he no longer uses ("Harry Truman was president the last time I sliced a sponge cake") was funnier than anything Mo Rocca said.

In this rerun-weary tail end of summer, "60 Minutes" has been dominant, and Sunday's broadcast will likely finish No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings again. Hey, whaddya know, serious can sell on network TV.  It's too bad Keith Olbermann's bosses at NBC don't believe that, or they might have actually let him do his show.