
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 ODonnell 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." |