I respect Olbermann to a point because he tries to base his stuff on facts. And when he's wrong, he'll admit it, but only if he's wrong about facts. That's way more than any Limbaugh, Beck, or Michael Savage is willing to do.
I remember hearing Olbermann in an interview say that he would prefer not to deliver information in the style he uses on the show. However he has found that he reaches more people when does his schtick.
How do his numbers stack up against Stewart's?
January 21, 2010:
Countdown w/ K. Olbermann – 1,067,000 viewers (313,000) (502,000)
Week of Jan 11-15:
“The Daily Show,” 1.4 million
Both from tvbythenumbers.com
Sorry I couldn't find concurrent ratings to compare, their website is a tad tricky to navigate. But they look to be about even. However, I'd suspect that Daily Show gets a rather huge bump from DVRs, Hulu, their own streaming website, and straight up illegal downloads.