It's just sad. Really. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, usually ignored here, is a sad, sad man. First off, the guy is the toast of the DailyKos set. Which means he's a nut. Second, there's this effort to toot his own horn, via NRO's Media Blog.

Tonight, Keith Olbermann tried desperately to convince his viewers that they are not alone. He had to dig deep to do so, but he managed to find a time slot in which he wasn't completely dominated by Fox News — 12 a.m. ET.

[Graphic]
COUNTDOWN WINS
September 27, 2006
12AM ET / 9PM PT

MSNBC -- 267,000
FOX News -- 251,000
CNN -- 215,000
Headline News -- 86,000
[End Graphic]

So when half of the country is asleep, MSNBC's Countdown rerun beats Fox News's Special Report rerun in the 25-54 demographic. But what about the original airing of Countdown at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT? According to TVNewser's ratings scoreboard, The O'Reilly Factor consistently beats Countdown by 2 to 1 margins.

At 9 p.m. Pacific Time, the only televisions turned to a rerun on MSNBC are the dorm rooms at Cal. Seriously. Why would Olbermann use those numbers? Well, it turns out that when his show aired live at 5 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Eastern), Olbermann was fifth! Having fewer viewers than a rerun of "Deal or No Deal" on CNBC!

Seriously, someone get Olbermann some medication.