Olberman is done, signs off the air

First Keith Olberman was dropped from Sunday Night Football, and now has signed off of MSNBC at the end of his contract.

Olbermann signed off his msnbc cable television show Friday night after nearly eight years.

"Msnbc and Keith Olbermann have ended our contract," Phil Griffin, president of msnbc, said Friday.

"Msnbc thanks Keith for his integral role in msnbc's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," Griffin said.

Olbermann announced his departure before closing his show with a reading from a James Thurber novel, a Friday night tradition.

Recounting his move to msnbc after departing ESPN, Olbermann said, "I was supposed to fill in for the late Jerry Nachman for exactly three days. 49 days later there was a four-year contract for me to return to this nightly 8 PM time slot which I had fled four years earlier."

Olberman was a ratings showman, and his antics no longer pulled the necessary audience.