According to the New York Times, Keith Olbermann will return to ESPN later this year. He'll reportedly host a one-hour, nightly show for ESPN2.

Keith Olbermann, famed observer of reckless drivers and occasional Gawker emailer, is reportedly testing the waters at ESPN, the station he left in 1997 in a typically bridge-burning/napalming fashion. Several times over the last year, the former Current and MSNBC host reached out to ESPN president John Skipper with friendly "Gee, I would love to have dinner" emails, and finally, some time a few months ago, the two dined together at New York's Four Seasons restaurant:

Former MSNBC personality Keith Olbermann took time out of his busy schedule last night to issue a very special Countdown-style "Special Comment" on the GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's now-infamous "47 percent tape."

Taking a break from his usual slate of "Bravo-lebrities," Andy Cohen welcomed MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on tonight's Watch What Happens Live. During the show, Maddow answered a question about her former colleague Keith Olbermann's very public split with Current TV. Here's her answer.

On tonight's Late Show with David Letterman, Keith Olbermann attempted to explain what exactly went wrong for him at Current TV. He did so with an analogy about a $10 million chandelier being installed in an unworthy building. It's pretty easy to guess who's who in the analogy.

Keith Olbermann was just fired from Current TV — and we hear that chances of him actually showing up to a slated appearance with old Sports Center cohost Dan Patrick at a panel in New York City next Thursday are not much higher than the lottery odds. Guess Dan will have to do this one by himself. Not that he should be surprised, given Keith's history of trouble with his networks.

Sputtering rage muppet Keith Olbermann has finally been fired from Al Gore's Current TV, Brian Stelter reports. He spent less than a year at the network, which took him on after he was similarly canned by MSNBC in 2011, and won't make a goodbye statement. In a hilariously bitchy "letter to viewers," Current writes:

In response to more cries of liberal double standards, Keith Olbermann is suspending his "Worst Persons in the World" segment. It's all over remarks the Current TV host made three years ago about conservative commentators Michelle Malkin and S.E. Cupp. (If you guessed he called either of them a "slut," you'd be wrong.)

Of all the fashion don'ts in the world, the don't-iest of them all are those god awful toe shoe sneaker things that make your feet like like those of a cyborg ape. God, they are awful. Golden Globes nominee Shailene Woodley wore them on the red blue carpet last night. She should be shot.

After today's post in which a former Keith Olbermann coworker mildly denigrates Keith Olbermann's choice of footwear, It took only minutes for Keith Olbermann's response email to hit our inbox. Here it is:

Former co-workers of Keith Olbermann share many tales about what it's like to work with with America's most prickly, grandiose, self-mythologizing (and occasionally great) newsreader:

Yesterday, we brought you a former Keith Olbermann employee's tale of how shitty it was to work for Keith Olbermann, as well as Keith Olbermann's multiple responses. Naturally, all of this inspired more Olbermann associates to write in. We now bring you one detractor, and one defender. [Bolding ours]

Keith Olbermann is a busy man. But not that busy, because he has responded not once, but twice, to our post today in which a former employee excoriates him for being an awful, terrible boss. (We applaud such multiple responses, to be clear.) Let's get you all caught up.

Pompous thesaurus reader Keith Olbermann is currently embroiled in his latest feud with his latest employer, along with the mandatory feud with the reporters who report on Keith's feuds. Has Keith always been such a touchy, obsessive psycho? Perhaps an ex-employee could shed some light.

Keith Olbermann is a talented television man. He's agile with words. He's whip-smart, an often penetrating thinker, and seems able to strike the perfect on-air balance between smoldering outrage and smirking "What are we doing here, folks?" acknowledgment of some of television's absurdities. Still. If you are a TV executive who hires this man, you are a fucking idiot.

In your hot wet Friday media column: Keith Olbermann vs. the NYO, Instapaper vs. Business Insider, everyone in America hates the media, Pinch Sulzberger's birthday party, and Time International's new editor.

Stephen Colbert welcomed former Vice President Al Gore to the Report tonight for a wide-ranging chat—just kidding, it was mostly about global warming because, duh, Al Gore. That notwithstanding, the interview did have two standout moments, including Gore's refusal to reciprocate Rick Perry's 1988 endorsement of him, as well as a conversation about Keith Olbermann that ended with Gore accidentally "outing" Colbert as a character. Here are both of them in one video.

Since Tea Partying hostess-with-the-mostest Rep. Michele Bachmann declared her presidential candidacy, Dr. Marcus Bachmann—her gay-barbarian discipline-advocating therapist-husband—has been drawing heightened attention on his own. Some people, including famous-type ones, think maybe Bachmann's a gay barbarian as well.

Last night, Keith Olbermann reincarnated Countdown on Current TV and it was pretty much the same exact show he had on MSNBC before the network gave him the boot. To call it "new" is a bit of a stretch, but Olbermann stopped by tonight's Late Show with David Letterman to promote the program and read off tonight's Top 10 list, "Reasons to Watch the New Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Video of the segment is above.

Five months after MSNBC canned him, Keith Olbermann returned to television tonight as Countdown made its debut on Current TV. It's pretty much the same exact show: The new network is basically the only difference between this incarnation of Countdown and the last one. But just in case you have any doubts, Olbermann's typically over-the-top "special comment" this evening—in which he claims that he's the "last line of defense" when it comes to protecting America's independence from being taken away by evil corporations—is above.