O'Donnell leaving 'The View'

[voivod]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rosie O'Donnell's stormy tenure on "The View" will be a short one. The opinionated host was unable to agree on a contract with ABC, and she'll leave the show in June.

Two days after an obscenity-laced rant before an audience that included media elite and high school girls, lightening-rod talk show diva Rosie O'Donnell is leaving "The View" at the end of her first season on the show. Earlier Wednesday, rumors swirled that O'Donnell's bawdy humor while emceeing the Matrix Awards on Monday would result in her leaving "The View."

O'Donnell's antics occurred Monday in front of 2,000 people at an event feting New York's most accomplished women in media at the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom.

The chat-show host dropped the F-bomb as Walters lowered her head and covered her face with her hand. She also concluded a rant about Trump by grabbing her crotch and shouting a profane epithet.

"My needs for the future just didn't dovetail with what ABC was able to offer me," O'Donnell said in a statement Wednesday.

"This has been an amazing experience," she said, "and one I wouldn't have traded for the world."

O'Donnell has helped raise the ratings for the daytime chat show invented by Barbara Walters. But her outspokenness has caused almost constant controversy, including a nasty name-calling feud with Donald Trump that placed Walters squarely in the middle.

"I induced Rosie to come back to television on 'The View' even for just one year," Walters said. "She has given the program new vigor, new excitement and wonderful hours of television. I can only be grateful to her for this year."

Walters was frequently left to clean up the damage after O'Donnell. She did it most recently Monday, when O'Donnell was criticized for using bad language and attacking Rupert Murdoch from the dais of the annual New York Women in Communication awards luncheon.

"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."

In the Trump imbroglio, O'Donnell was reportedly mad that Walters did not come more swiftly to her defense, while Trump said Walters told him she didn't want O'Donnell on the show -- a claim Walters denied.

Statements by public figures are being watched more closely in the post-Don Imus era. The lobbying group Focus on the Family said it was preparing to contact advertisers on "The View" as part of a campaign against O'Donnell. The group is angry at O'Donnell for comments they feel were insulting to Catholics.

Despite controversy -- or maybe because of it -- O'Donnell was good business for ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co. Ratings for "The View" during February sweeps were up 15 percent in key women demographics over the same time in 2006.

Bill Carroll, an expert in the syndication market for Katz Television, said he'd be surprised if ABC didn't try hard to keep O'Donnell, given the attention she brought to the long-running show.

The timing of the announcement doesn't particularly suit O'Donnell if she wants to remain in daytime television. She wouldn't be able to introduce a new program to the syndication market until September 2008, he said. But the company that produced O'Donnell's long-running daytime show has expressed interest in having her back, he said.

[Red]

Somewhere, Tom Selleck is smiling. And so is The Donald.

[chefcraig]

Somewhere, Tom Selleck is smiling. And so is The Donald.

Me, too. It's about time that this phony, vindictive and contradictory pig of a human being left the airwaves. Too bad her media gluttony will result in her resurfacing elsewhere.

[smithjc]

Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say! Man is she irritating!

Oh and she's gross as all get-out!

[VAREB]

Can you imagine if Mel Gibson had talked to his daughter the way Alec Baldwin did. Rosie couldn't have got her lips off Baldwin's ass fast enough to rip Gibson a new one. Talk about two faced. Although I've never seen "The View", the endless clips of her rants that permeate televsion will not be missed. Here's hoping she's decided to spend more time with her lesbian life partner and children.

[ZORBA5150]

she's a lousy human being, period. I hope she retires

[ZeoBandit]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[the_atomic_punks_rule]

Leaving The View to front a band perhaps???

[Elwood P.]

Maybe she felt she was getting "too big" for the show.

[chefcraig]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

It would need be an extremely large door, perhaps made of reinforced steel or concrete to avoid being damaged.

[smithjc]

You guys are bad!

Not that I disagree mind you. Any word on replacements?

[The Rover]

Somewhere, Tom Selleck is smiling. And so is The Donald.

The real story is.....

Rosie, "You're FIRED ! !"

I wonder what foul-mouthed ratings-grabber ABC will put in to replace her ? ?

[wham bam will rock]

Rosie shoud send her Mom flowers everyday.

That woman must have had her cooch stretched to the nines when Baby Rosie's head broke on thru to the other side.


Having said that, F Rupert Mur-baugh! The fat bitch actually does something halfway interesting and this sad old bastard, along with a bunch of other prudes, gets their grandma panties in a wad.

I believe Axel Foley said it best....

"Foul-mouthed?!?! FUCK YOU man!"

[chefcraig]

...I wonder what foul-mouthed ratings-grabber ABC will put in to replace her ? ?

Ann Coulter instantly (and disgustingly) comes to mind.

[knuck]

It would need be an extremely large door, perhaps made of reinforced steel or concrete to avoid being damaged.

Awesome Craig!