• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 8, 2007

If I were a producer of a flagging network show, I’d think of calling Rosie O’Donnell to take a rip at it.

I’d tell her privately that too many people from Peru or Hoboken or South Central were on my show -- that they were too thin, or too heavy, or too blonde  -- and that I, as the producer, have had financial troubles.

If previous history is any judge --  i.e., Donald Trump and “The Apprentice” -- this seems to work well.

O’Donnell has recently been critical of “American Idol,” calling  the show "sexist,” “racist” and “weightest” because of some competitors who departed the show.

Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer of “Idol,” said he didn't want "to add to the obvious self-promotion of Ms. O'Donnell," but "I feel as though I must refute her absurd and ridiculous claims that 'American Idol' is racist and/or weightest.”

Oh course these claims aren’t accurate. “Idol” winners could be big, and of a minority – second-season winner, Ruben Studdard, for example.

Not that “Idol” needed a boost, since it’s the highest-rated among all network programs. But even the biggest of the big can always use some extra spin. Already there was one contestant, Antonella Barba,who, it was discovered, had some naked pictures -- some real, some Photoshopped -- on the Internet. These days, that kind of controversy seems rather lame, though.

But O’Donnell spins it a new way -- intra-broadcast network program feuding. Fresh off her battle of words with Donald Trump and the controversy around the Miss USA winner, O’Donnell’s verbal attacks digressed into personal stuff only a PR person, privately, could love. “The Apprentice”’s 2 and 3 ratings among 18-49 might have been much worse this season. And ratings have soared on “The View.”

Perhaps some of the media is going in the wrong direction in all of this. AOL Television, in its site devoted to “Idol,” asks viewers in one blurb: “Bringing Back Sexy: Tell us who is the hottest contestant of all time. Weigh in!”

Tune into O’Donnell to see what prime-time show, producer, or talent she skewers next. O’Donnell gives new meaning to the TV advertising term CPMs -- cost per thousand viewers -- and CPP -- cost per point.

With O’Donnell, call it -- cost per pound.