Olbermann Returns to TV on New Network

The battle for the eyeballs of the left begins in earnest on Monday night when former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann takes on his former bosses on a new network.

Olbermann is keeping the name, format and time slot of his MSNBC talkfest “Countdown,” which debuts on Al Gore’s Current TV opposite The Lawrence O’Donnell Show.

His first guests are rabble-rousing filmmaker Michael Moore and Markos Moulitsas, founder of the left-leaning website The Daily Kos.

MSNBC has responded to the new challenge by signing up a slew of names including the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson and Ezra Klein, The Nation writer Christopher Hayes and Internet talk show host Cenk Uygur, reports the New York Times.

“The threat of Keith’s new show meant that MSNBC had to spend a little bit of extra money,” one of Olbermann’s former MSNBC staffers told The Times.

Olbermann left MSNBC in January two months after being suspended “indefinitely” for donating campaign money to three Democrats running for Congress. The suspension was lifted after four days.