Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC Debut Ratings 50 Percent Higher Than Keith Olbermann's

Lawrence O'Donnell's show on MSNBC debuted in its new time slot Monday night to signficantly higher ratings than his predecessor, Keith Olbermann, managed.

According to The Wrap, audience numbers for 'The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell' were boosted by Olbermann fans and curious viewers tuning in to see what all the fuss was about.

O'Donnell's sudden move from 10PM ET to Olbermann's former time of 8PM ET came after Olbermann announced his abrupt exit from MSNBC on Friday's 'Countdown.'

O'Donnell had about 50 percent more viewers than Olberman's show averaged in the same slot. However, according to MSNBC President Phil Griffin, the ratings target for O'Donnell is the same as it was for Olbermann: Bill O'Reilly.

Although O'Donnell scored a respectable 1.53 million viewers, that's fewer than half of what ratings juggernaut 'The O'Reilly Factor' gets over on Fox at the same time.

And in other ratings news, 'Variety' reports that 'Pawn Stars' continues to break records over at the History Channel. Monday night's episode, which garnered over 6.7 millions viewers, became the most-watched ever for the cable channel.