Rosie Returns to Television?

NEW YORK, NY -- Rosie O'Donnell is in serious discussions to return to television with her own weeknight talk show on the cable news channel MSNBC, according to executives on both sides of the negotiations.

If a deal is reached, O'Donnell might get the 9 p.m. slot each weeknight on MSNBC. That would put her up against Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" and CNN's "Larry King Live." Her show would replace Live with Dan Abrams, which only recently replaced Scarborough Country.

"It's far from a done deal," said an executive close to the negotiations. Money is one of the issues still to be resolved.

Neither of the two most recent MSNBC counterprograms, "Live With Dan Abrams" or "Scarborough Country," could make much headway at 9 p.m. against "Hannity" or "Larry King." Abrams relinquished his post as GM of MSNBC to focus on the 9 p.m. program that he inherited.

O'Donnell had her own successful daytime talk show from 1996 to 2002, and then a year long stint as a moderator on ABC's morning talk show 'The View.'

Update: Rosie O’Donnell ended talks with MSNBC for the new show. "The network couldn't afford to make a deal for Rosie just based on a nighttime show," reports Fox News. "It would have to have been tied into something else on daytime. The problem with that? O'Donnell doesn't want to return to a grueling daytime schedule while her kids are in school."