Pain, Agony, and Rosie O'Donnell

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, Rosie Live was on TV and I realized I'd made a horrific mistake by not renting a movie.

There was a time I actually liked Rosie O'Donnell. She was funny and harmless, and she never bothered me. I enjoyed seeing her on talk shows and then she got her very own talk show. For years, Rosie was the "Queen of Nice" and enjoyed huge ratings success and several Emmys for her talk show. Then, she started to become a bit too opinionated and made her guests feel a bit... awkward.



Rosie's ratings were still great and when she decided to fold her talk show, fans waited for her to make some sort of return to television. Next up for O'Donnell was The View. No longer the sole host of a celebrity gab-fest, O'Donnell let loose her opinions on panel of The View, and often clashed with guests and her own co-hosts. Her feud with Donald Trump was embarrassing for both of them, but her final blow out with Elisabeth Hasselbeck was ultimately her undoing. Whether or not O'Donnell left the show on her own terms or was asked to leave early doesn't really matter. The truth of the matter is that I'm sure I'm not the only person who agreed with most of her opinions, but was repelled by her loud and arrogant way of getting her point across.



Flash forward a couple of years and NBC decides to give Rosie her own prime time variety show. What. A. Nighmare. Did anyone really think Liza Minelli would draw in the desired 18-49 viewer demographic? Maybe Clay Aiken would bring in the young viewers? The show brought in a whopping 1.9 rating in the desired 18-49 demo. The show tied with the already canceled Pushing Daisies for the lowest rated show of the night. I'm quite certain this "test pilot" will never be seen or heard again from NBC. The network should have remembered that their cable sister, MSNBC was set to give Rosie a prime time talk show last year - and quickly decided against it.