NEW YORK (AP) – A suspension is proving good business for MSNBC and Keith Olbermann – at least in the short term.

The size of the combative liberal host's audience shot up in the days after his return from a two-day suspension for donating to three Democratic candidates. The Nielsen Co. said Olbermann's show reached 1.3 million viewers the first three days after his return last week, up from the 1.08 million he averaged in October.

His first day back, on Tuesday, Olbermann reached 1.5 million people, Nielsen said.

Olbermann's suspension, and subsequent non-apology to NBC News, has caused backstage controversy at the network. MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin threatened to fire Olbermann if he went ahead with a threat to talk about the issue on ABC's 'Good Morning America', the website The Daily Beast reported. Olbermann took on veteran TV newsman Ted Koppel, saying he and other journalists failed the country during the Iraq War because they were too worried about being objective.

Koppel had criticised the rise of opinionated cable news programming in a Washington Post essay.