After years of generating both ratings and headaches for their respective networks, Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann are starting over on smaller and riskier television platforms, their departures from their prominent cable posts greeted with confident predictions from their critics that the day when TV political debate was driven by larger-than-life commentators may be over.

Beck and Olbermann are making a different bet – that the strength of their personal brands will bring in viewers, no matter how obscure their platforms, and that the control they will now have over their shows will launch a whole new era of personality-driven programming.