Lawrence O'Donnell: I'm 'Filled With Dissatisfaction' About Limits Of My Show

Lawrence O'Donnell should be feeling good these days, but the MSNBC host displayed a decidedly pessimistic side in an interview with The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz.

O'Donnell, while not completely matching his predecessor Keith Olbermann's ratings, has been performing very solidly in the 8 PM time slot on MSNBC--which he was hastily moved into after Olbermann left in January. (He averaged 1.033 million viewers for February, enough to make him MSNBC's second-highest rated host after Rachel Maddow.)

But O'Donnell told Kurtz that he's never entirely happy about the show, and has a hard time envisioning sticking to it long-term.

"I can't look up and imagine myself doing this for three years," O'Donnell said. "I'm just filled with dissatisfaction about what we can squeeze into script form. It's always my fault. I'm a very slow writer."

His executive producer, Izzy Povich, told the site that she is pushing O'Donnell to include more of his personal experiences in the show. (He was a longtime Senate aide and a writer for "The West Wing.") Interestingly, that's one of the things O'Donnell told The Huffington Post he would try to avoid doing in a September interview.

"If we left it entirely to me, we would do the first half hour on the valuation of the Chinese currency and the second half hour on the debt ceiling," he said. "But we're going to mostly have to do interests beyond just mine."

Comments

[Hysterian68]

03:04 PM on 04/08/2011

Mr. O'Donnell would make a great Joe Pine. He's too good for MSNBC. He needs to leave it and get his own show picked up by a network with much more imagination.

[gra8whit]

03:35 AM on 03/24/2011

He needs to take a closer look a Maddow and some of the shows on NPR. They managed to hold my interest while explaining in simple terms the debt crisis, credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations in surprisingly imaginative ways. Rachel's explanation of how a nuclear power plant works was a tour de force. I was 'entertained' while being informed. It's hard, Lawrence. But I think you can do it. Hang in there. Take a few days off and come back a fresh outlook.

[truthglow]

07:43 PM on 03/22/2011

He SHOULD be "filled with dissatisfaction" about his show. It stinks! It certainly is nothing like Keith's show used to be, and when Keith comes back on the air in May, Lawrence's ratings will be a lot lower. He's second rate, at best, and very, very boring.

[Chris Morrison]

07:49 PM on 03/22/2011

I'm not so sure; Current TV reaches a comparatively tiny number of households by comparison. I get MSNBC on basic cable; I don't have access to Current at all.

[truthglow]

10:19 PM on 03/22/2011

Well, I have access to Current, and I can't wait until Keith is back. I wouldn't purchase any TV package without such access, JUST BECAUSE of Keith. He has millions of fans who are waiting with baited breath to once again hear the TRUTH. You shall all see when he comes back, how he takes away ratings from the new right wing Comcast network.

[2gds]

01:16 PM on 03/13/2011

love your show, if anyone checks back in the 70's the japanies govt sold it.s earthquake insurance, guess which country bought the most ,USA

[cyclebeast]

09:24 PM on 03/10/2011

40 minutes a day to talk about FOX News is just not enough?

[wilinot]

09:17 PM on 03/10/2011

I miss Keith

[AJ39]

12:01 PM on 03/10/2011

O'Donnell's show is one of the few I still watch on MSNBC. He's almost always polite to his guests but can be hard-hitting. He's reasoned and he's smart and he knows a thing or two about Washington politics. I like his deliberate style.

While I still admire Rachael very much, I hardly ever watch her anymore. She seems to be talking at the top of her voice all the time. Everything is in crisis. I want to say "slow down." As to Big Ed and Chris Matthews, they're so in love with themselves and their views that I can't stand to listen to them.

So, for those of you who think O'Donnell talks too slow or, as one or more persons said, too boring, I say "keep up the reasoned pace." It's not as if he can't get mad. He does, and he's Irish, after all!

[bonatay]

10:09 AM on 03/10/2011

Izzy Povich, told the site that she is pushing O'Donnell to include more of his personal experiences in the show. He was a longtime Senate aide

No! No! No! No! No!! We will have another Scarborough "When i worked in congress......"

[stagebandman]

04:53 PM on 03/10/2011

Yeah, but O'Donnell doesn't have skeletons that Scarborough does.

[shadowgirl52]

09:26 AM on 03/10/2011

It is your show so pick up the pace. You talk too slow, you don't go after the lies anymore and you seem to not have a sence of humor at all. We also need to see some passion. Don't take yourself so seriously. Oh and if you could do a SPREAD in GQ Magazine like Megan Kelly you too could be at the top of your game.
Sorry Lawerance you are just not sexy enough.
We love ya man and we want you to be happy, so, BE HAPPY you have a job and quit winning.

[plainjohn]

08:33 AM on 03/10/2011

Miss Keith. This guy is a bore. He couldn't sell painkillers at a Migraine Convention.

[truthglow]

07:44 PM on 03/22/2011

I agree.

[OneTop]

02:03 AM on 03/10/2011

Remember Lawrence, you are there to sell pharmaceuticals.

Not your fault, it's just the way it is.

[Shaun Hensley]

01:00 AM on 03/10/2011

Ha ha.

[Stock Lady]

11:55 PM on 03/09/2011

I am filled with dissatisfaction about a certain overzealous HP moderator who 'bans' level 1 Networkers with 156 friends with no apparent reason than perhaps they don't like their views about a certain taboo subject.

[DillonP04]

11:02 PM on 03/09/2011

"I'm a very slow writer."

...Don't they mean READER. I can't hardly stand to watch his show because he ttaallkkss ssoo ssllooww. Anybody else notice this? LOL

[brooklynlemur]

01:50 PM on 03/09/2011

I think O'Donnell is super smart and I often learned things when I stayed and watched him after Rachel Maddow sometimes. But I can't watch too much of him and don't think the 8pm time slot is good for him at all. I hate the Ed Show too. KO's leaving just messed up the whole evening.

And I am so sick of that promo for O'Donnell's show with the repeated 'blaming the bullets and the man for the next stupid 21 bullets.