(Long Island, NY) The controversial comic and TV host for “The View” will be leaving the show in June. Apparently Ms. O’Donnell could not agree on a mutual contract with ABC. Apparently ABC wanted her to stay for three additional years and she was only willing to stay for an additional year. Rosie declined, but she did mention that she has agreed to appear occasionally next season for a one-hour ABC special on Autism. Ms. O’Donnell is quoted as saying “It just didn’t work,” she said, “and that’s show biz. But it’s not sad because I loved it here and I love you guys and I’m not going away.”
Rosie O’Donnell helped the daytime talk show out by raising ratings which was much needed after Star Jones Reynolds. Unfortunately, it seems she has just caused too much controversy including a nasty spat with The Donald that put show creator Barbara Walters in the middle. Barbara is also quoted as saying “We have had, to say the least, an interesting year.” Barbara Walters dismisses the fact of having anything to do with ABC’s decision and Rosie expressing “This is not my doing or my choice.” but she has had to damage control after Rosie’s comments, or more specifically, Monday’s Event at The Annual New York Women in Communication Awards Luncheon where Rosie bashed Rupert Murdoch and used fowl language. Barbara also expressed to the media “I would like to point out that Rosie’s view is not always mine,” Walters said. “I would like to say for the record that I am very fond of Rupert Murdoch.”
The Donald has expressed his comments to Fox News and states that ABC fired O’Donnel for remarks made at the Women in Communications luncheon “Barbara’s the happiest person in the world that Rosie’s been fired,” Trump said.
Cindi Berger, spokeswoman for both O’Donnell and Walters, denied Trump’s claim, wondering how he would know what had happened in contract negotiations between ABC and O’Donnell. Spokeswoman for Walter and O’Donnel state “She wasn’t going to commit to anything for three years and they would not commit to her for one more.”
Rosie has also had many disputes with her co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck for her conservative views which have gotten enormous publicity. Rosie recently even criticized “American Idol” by saying “Isn’t that what America thinks of entertainment? To make fun of someone’s physical appearance. And when they leave the room, laugh hysterically at them. Three millionaires, one probably intoxicated.” She even got into a tiff with Kelly Ripa from “Live with Regis and Kelly” for making a homo-phobic remark when she commented “radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America” and has been critical of President Bush.
In what could be the most criticism of all, Rosie O’Donnell has consistently been pressing on with her calls for continued investigations of the events surrounding September 11th 2001.
According to videos posted on YouTube (top right), while on the show Rosie O’Donnell made comments that renewed controversy over the collapse of World Trade Center 7. While saying she didn’t know what to believe about the U.S. government’s involvement in the attacks of Sept. 11, she said, “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade Center 1 and 2 got hit by planes — 7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.”
She continued: “To say that we don’t know that it imploded, that it was an implosion and a demolition, is beyond ignorant. Look at the films, get a physics expert here [on the show] from Yale, from Harvard, pick the school—[the collapse] defies reason.”, directly contradicting the official line that the structure fell as a result of fire and debris damage.
Some speculate that this stunt along with her continued efforts into “digging” for more information on 9/11 and her conspiracy theories both on the show and on her blog have something to do with her departing the show. Her remarks only add fuel to the fire of other very public and criticized opinions of what happened to WTC Building 7 made by presidential candidate John Kerry and Hollywood sitcom star Charlie Sheen among others.
The View is a multi- Emmy Award nominated daytime television talk show on ABC created by Barbara Walters, Bill Geddie, and Jessica Guff. The show features a panel of women as co-hosts, including Rosie O’Donnell, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters. The show premiered on August 11, 1997.
Rosie was great for the View and her controversy added to the show’s ratings. It has been recorded that in September 2006 a total of 3.1 million viewers watched for the month. In February sweeps were up to 15 percent over lasts years demographics.
