Unable to agree on a new contract with ABC, Rosie O'Donnell announced that she will leave ABC's daytime talk show The View at the end of the season.
The über-liberal gabber made the announcement on the April 25 episode of the show, just hours after several media outlets aired footage of the latest O'Donnell rant, during which she dropped the f-bomb and grabbed her crotch.
The video, which aired on outlets as diverse as the syndicated Access Hollywood and Fox News Channel, came from footage taken during The Matrix Awards, an event sponsored by New York Women in Communications and hosted by O'Donnell.
Rosie dropped the f-bomb in remarks she made about the audio system in the room and then turned her offensive attention to her nemesis, Donald Trump, saying it had always been her “goal to give a bald billionaire a (bleeped expletive).” O'Donnell challenged Trump, saying, “That comb-over wimp a** goes after her instead of me, come here buddy, ok?” and then grabbing her crotch.
Access Hollywood host Billy Bush says 2,000 of the “most accomplished women in media” were in the audience, and many found her remarks “offensive.” The creator of The View, Barbara Walters, was shown holding her face in her hands.
O'Donnell's presence on The View has boosted the show's ratings. Her left-wing political rants have become near-daily fodder. For a compilation of some of the worst of those ravings, check out the Profiles in Bias report from the
In the wake of the firing of shock jock Don Imus for making a racial slur on the air, there has been considerable speculation about whether O'Donnell's outlandish rants would earn her the exit door at The View. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly has publicly called for O'Donnell's departure. On the April 24 Hannity and Colmes, Sean Hannity exercised a bit of timely fortune telling, saying, “Rosie is going to end it for herself.”
Which is just what she did. In describing the decision to end her full-time hosting duties for ABC, O'Donnell said it was more about time commitments, with the network wanting three years guaranteed; she wanted a one-year deal. She will be a “frequent guest host” and will do “specials” for the network. O'Donnell will continue her full-time hosting duties through June.
In a story posted on The Drudge Report, reporter Roger Friedman of FoxNews.com said O'Donnell decided to leave the show earlier in the year after the initial public fight with Donald Trump and the fact that Barbara Walters did not defend her. Friedman also reported that O'Donnell wanted $10 million for a one-year contract.
Kristen Fyfe is senior writer at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the
