Countdown to a New Countdown

Word is, in the sudden (to most of us) aftermath of Olbermann's exit last night from MSNBC's Countdown there is going to be some quick scrambling of the evening lineup -- Ed Shultz entering prime time, ready or not, Lawrence O'Donnell's show (which has been better than I expected it to be) appearing earlier in the evening, that sort of thing. Apart from the marvelous Rachel Maddow, of course, MSNBC's anchors tend to look far too much like the white wizened attendants to the Emperor in his Death Star 2.0 throne room in Return of the Jedi. I for one would like to see Countdown continue on with Aisha Tyler at the helm. The Countdown format always works better when the righteous anger is leavened with the righteous funny, when it edges a little closer in tone to the Soup (an anchor desk Tyler once briefly took up herself). I also wouldn't mind seeing Sam Seder take charge (in more ways than one), and he's a more plausible candidate than Tyler since he's actually guest-hosted Countdown a couple of times, although my preference that he host in boxer shorts is probably at least marginally less plausible. Cenk Uygur, who has also guest-hosted, would end the show for me forever -- his style is even more barky and stiff -- all surface tedium and discomfiting hysteria underneath -- than the one that has suffused KO's performance in these many months of family tragedies and management disputes, all of which has made Countdown lately a show I almost always skip when once upon a time, deep in the slough of despond of the Killer Clown Administration now just behind us, it was a show I rarely missed.