QUICK TAKES - March 31, 2009

MSNBC will continue airing Keith Olbermann’s talk show twice each weeknight in prime time, putting on indefinite hold a search for a new 10 p.m. program.

That time slot has attracted attention ever since MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin suggested earlier this year he was on the lookout for a new show. Fans of the Internet show “The Young Turks” and of Air America’s Sam Seder have openly campaigned for their favorites.

MSNBC currently reruns Olbermann’s “Countdown” show only an hour after its original airing ends. It trails Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren and CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” in the ratings, but MSNBC executives have been surprised at its showing.

Fox has 2.1 million viewers, on average, in the time slot in March. Cooper on CNN has 1.2 million and Olbermann has 902,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. On a handful of nights, a rerun of Olbermann has even beaten a live Cooper in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that MSNBC watches most closely.