Commentary

As 'The View' Turns: The Soap Opera Saga Of Rosie O'Donnell

by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, February 9, 2015

Who needs soap operas when we have “The View”? In the latest episode of “As ‘The View’ Turns,” Rosie O’Donnell suddenly resigned some time after last Thursday’s live show (Friday’s shows are customarily pre-taped).

The news broke on Friday: This week (starting today, Feb. 9) will be Rosie O’s last, ending her second go-round on the show. This one started last September and lasted a little less than six months. Her previous stint lasted only one season (September 2006 to May 2007) -- although that experience was so infamous that you may have thought she had been on the show a lot longer.

In an interview with People magazine that was posted online over the weekend, O’Donnell said she is quitting the show because her doctor recently became concerned with the stress she is under, and the potential impact of that stress on her health. O’Donnell, 52, had a heart attack in August 2012 that she describes as nearly fatal.

So she is framing her exit from “The View” this way: If she stays, she risks another heart attack. Although she didn’t cite the disarray in her domestic life as a contributing factor, she is separated from her wife, Michelle Rounds, who she married two years ago.

So what’s so stressful about “The View” that Rosie O risks having another heart attack if she sticks around? She didn’t mention anything specific, but many reports have emerged recently about tumult behind the scenes at the show -- much of it centered on O’Donnell.

According to the reports, she’s a strong personality backstage (to say the least) who doesn’t hesitate to make her displeasure known when told about guest bookings she doesn’t approve of, to cite one example of things she doesn’t like. In general, she has been depicted as a moody presence who snaps at underlings one moment and then becomes the Queen of Nice the next.

If even part of the backstage stories are to be believed, one could conclude that Rosie O brings a great deal of this stress upon herself.

Oddly, her decision to leave the show just days from now was not brought up in the first two segments of “The View” on Monday morning -- which is when you might have expected the subject to be raised, discussed and clarified. Instead, Rosie O promoted a documentary about herself that is due to premiere this coming Saturday night on HBO, and then the ladies moved on to discussing the Brian Williams scandal and Sunday night’s Grammy Awards.

Ironically, it’s the other Rosie on “The View” -- Rosie Perez -- who had been rumored for weeks to be on her way out. Perez returned to the show just last week after a month off in which she rehearsed for her upcoming Broadway play “Fish in the Dark,” the Larry David play.

The rumors said ABC was using this leave of absence to ease Perez off the show because she isn’t working out as a “View” co-host. Now, with the other Rosie leaving, Rosie Perez probably gets to stay a while longer. If she makes it through this entire season, it’s a sure bet she won’t be back next fall, which means “The View” will once again face the challenge of rebuilding itself this summer for the second consecutive year.

And so the soap opera that is “The View” continues, but it’s a daytime serial that seems to be wearing out its welcome with every passing day. Not only is the show’s continual game of musical chairs increasingly tiresome, but there are so many imitators on TV today that “The View” is hardly the special show it once was.

Once upon a time, it was a new and unique concept. Today, however, “The View” has spawned all of these shows with similar names: “The Talk,” “The Chew,” “The Chat” and “The Real.” Might I also suggest (if they don’t already exist): “The Gab,” “The Blab” and “The Yak.”

In retrospect (which I admit is almost always 20-20), perhaps “The View” shouldn’t have brought Rosie O’Donnell back at all. When you stop and think about it, her return hardly represented a “refresh” of the show. Instead, it was more like a “retread,” which is no way for a pioneering show like “The View” to compete with a raft of newcomers who have invaded its space.

What “The View” needs -- again -- is to make over the entire panel of co-hosts. And maybe the name should be changed to “The Yak.”

5 comments about "As 'The View' Turns: The Soap Opera Saga Of Rosie O'Donnell".

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Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, February 9, 2015 at 2:39 p.m.
At what point do people finally acknowledge that she's too unstable to work? Talented, yes. Mentally OK, probably not.
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Dana Dwinell from D2 Communications, February 9, 2015 at 2:59 p.m.

Think about just how far Rosie O has fallen, since the days when her daytime talk was the "IT" show, the heir to Oprah, and pre Ellen. The gal had clout, adoring fans. I think she gave it up believing her press releases and that something more powereful was awaiting. And waiting..... Im pretty sure she has always been rough on staffers- that happens when your name is on the marquee. But what a tumble.... No wonder she is unhappy and looking for disrespecters under every leaf.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, February 9, 2015 at 5:46 p.m.

Anyone remember Rosie's short lived fling with "McCalls" in the staid magazine publishing venue? That didn't work out so well, either.

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, February 9, 2015 at 6:53 p.m.

Barbara Lippert for The View.

Thomas Siebert from BENEVOLENT PROPAGANDA, February 10, 2015 at 5:33 p.m.

Actually, wasn't ROSIE magazine, which spelled McCall's, a pretty big hit? Sold a ton of copies? Problem was she kept clashing with the publisher and then left, if I recall. Maybe circulation fell some, but I don't think it bombed.