Olbermann: 'Worst Persons' Changing Following Arizona Shooting (VIDEO)

Olbermann: Major Change Coming To 'Countdown' Following Arizona Shooting

Keith Olbermann announced Monday a major change coming to one of his broadcast's signature segment: the Worst Persons in the World.

The "Countdown" host said he would be changing the name of the segment just months after temporarily suspending it in the wake of Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity.

"This ordinarily is where you would see our Worst Persons in the World segment," Olbermann said Monday late into the broadcast. "For more than two months, I've struggled with its value. We suspended it for a time, there was a small clamor to bring it back, and bring it back we did. The segment was born in humor with clear intentions: criticism, sarcasm, satire, calling out, even ridiculing. But a lot of people -- especially those who don't watch the show -- still think that I literally mean, these are the three worst persons in the world.

"There is potential danger in that," he continued. "So the name has got to go. But the purpose — to employ the French philosopher Bergson's explanation that laughter is a social sanction against inflexible behavior — that remains relevant and important and maybe more so than ever before."

Olbermann promised that "a new version of the segment" would be coming shortly.

"No time for it tonight, maybe not even this week," he said. "We have sadder and more sober things to discuss."

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