Olbermann makes its big debut tonight at 11 p.m. ET following ESPN2’s coverage of the U.S. Open. However, not everyone is pleased about Keith’s return to ESPN.

I received this note from a reader named Joe:

Very simply, when the visage of Olbermann appears anytime on my TV screen, I will instantly change the channel. I know many people who will do the same. Good move, ESPN.

I understand how Joe feels. When Rush Limbaugh was featured on The Haney Project a few years back, I couldn’t separate his politics from the golf. As much as I like the show, I only was able to watch a few minutes before pretty much bailing on the entire series. Frankly, I didn’t want Rush to get good at golf.

So while I am a big fan of Olbermann and his immense talents, it also helps that I agreed with his political views on MSNBC and Current. But as reader Joe suggests, many people, namely conservatives, don’t feel the same way.

Since that faction makes up roughly 50 percent of the country, I wonder if those viewers will continue to tune out Olbermann even though he insists he won’t be talking about politics on his new show. The potential of losing half of a viewer base doesn’t matter to MSNBC or Fox News, but it is a big deal for ESPN.

During a recent teleconference, I asked Olbermann if he was concerned about losing viewers due to his polarizing views from his previous stops.

Olbermann began with a long, “Uhhhhhhh….” Then he launched into a three-minute answer.

Not worried: “I don’t have any particular worry about that. You have to remember long before I had done my first newscast, let alone my first political broadcast, there were people who wouldn’t tune in to watch me because of my attitude about sports.

“People do not not notice what I’m doing in television. It’s probably my greatest sell-able asset. So the nature of why people would not watch will change from time to time. It might be my political orientation one time or whether or not I’m wearing a mustache. In local news, I once had a guy threaten to cut out my tongue because I said something bad about the Dodgers.

WAR talk with Ari: “There are various different reasons why people won’t watch. I will say this. During most of my spare time away from sports, I hung out at the ballpark. My guess would be 5 percent or less of everyone connected with baseball would not be described as a conservative. I never had a problem with a ballplayer.

“I’ve had long, warm conversations about baseball with Ari Fleischer. He sat behind me at a Yankees game and we talked for nine innings. If you would have told me in my previous incarnation, that would have happened, I would not have believed it.

Sports trumps all: “One thing about sports, it does transcend politics. It is the place where you can go to heal those wounds politics inflicts every day.

“If I could guarantee 100 percent of the audience, I probably could get some more money. If you have a different political point of view than the one I’ve expressed during the last few years, you probably should be happy I’m not doing politics anymore. So there’s also that.”

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As I said, I’m an Olbermann fan. Even with all the programming being launched by the new Fox Sports 1, I think Olbermann’s show has the most potential of all of them. On the surface, it was a brilliant counter-move by ESPN president John Skipper.

However, as we all know in politics, people hold grudges. If those people tune out, it could impact the show’s prospects.

Please let me know how you feel. Will you be able to separate Sports Keith from Political Keith?