Report: ESPN Hires Nate Silver to Contribute to 'Olbermann'

ESPN will reportedly announce next week that it has hired Nate Silver to contribute to Keith Olbermann’s new late-night talk show.

The numbers-crunching baseball geek gained national fame when he correctly projected the outcomes of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. The New York Times, which reported the news on Friday, hired Silver, who brought his FiveThirtyEight franchise with him, in 2009. 

Silver may have made accurate projections in 2008, though, because he was receiving confidential internal polling numbers directly from the Obama campaign, which he did not disclose at the time because he had signed a confidentiality agreement. 

The Times reported at ESPN, Silver “is expected to have a wide-ranging portfolio. Along with his writing and number-crunching, he will most likely be a regular contributor to ‘Olbermann.'” He will also take his FiveThirtyEight franchise with him. Olbermann, like Silver, is a liberal who is most knowledgeable about baseball. 

Silver reportedly told the Times on Friday that he was leaving, and ESPN may make the formal announcement as early as Monday. He had expressed an interest in covering more sports while he was at the Times.