ABC'S BREAKING NEWS: Rosie O'Donnell

I don't know whether to laugh at this or shake my head in disgust:



Does Rosie O'Donnell's failure to renew her contract warrant a "BREAKING NEWS" banner on the ABC website?

Did ABC cut into regular programming to break the news to America?

Are we really supposed to care?

April 25, 2007 -- ABC has been unable to come to a contractual agreement with Rosie O'Donnell. As a result, her hosting duties on "The View" will come to an end mid-June.

Despite controversy — or maybe because of it — O'Donnell was good business for ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co. Ratings for "The View" during February sweeps were up 15 percent in key women demographics over the same time in 2006.

I think it's incredible that the Walt Disney Co. gave O'Donnell a forum to spout her always extremist liberal, oftentimes crude, views.

I think it's interesting that this announcement (Excuse me, BREAKING NEWS!) came just a day after the report on her foul-mouthed performance at the "Matrix Awards in front of 2,000 feting New York's most accomplished women in media at the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom yesterday."

The loose-lipped lesbian dropped the F-bomb as Barbara Walters lowered her head on the dais and covered her face with her hand. O'Donnell concluded a rant about Donald Trump by grabbing her crotch and shouting, "Eat me!"

O'Donnell also said she was sad when Trump called her "disgusting" and "fat" because, "it was always my dream to give an old, bald billionaire a boner."

The annual luncheon of N.Y. Women in Communications - which honored Cindy Adams, Meredith Vieira, Joan Didion, Susan Lyne, Arianna Huffington and Lisa Caputo, among others - featured as presenters News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch [See photo, facing page], Joy Behar, Nora Ephron, Martha Stewart and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Also on hand were 17 sweet-faced high school girls who won scholarships to pursue their dreams of careers in media.

...O'Donnell's publicist, Cindi Berger, told us: "When you ask for Rosie, you know what you're getting. She's not a shrinking violet. She's a stand-up comedienne. She says things that are provocative."

Perhaps O'Donnell has become a bit too provocative.

In any case, she's leaving The View.

Barbara Walters distanced herself from the failed contract negotiations.

According to Barbara Walters, creator and co-executive producer of "The View," the co-host will be missed.

"We have had, to say the least, an interesting year … an exciting, fun-filled, provocative year. We have all gotten together and you will be missed," Walters said, adding, "I do not participate in the negotiations for Rosie. It was between your representatives and agents. This is not my doing."

...In a statement released to ABCNEWS.com today, Walters said: "I induced Rosie to come back to television on 'The View' even for just one year. She has given the program new vigor, new excitement and wonderful hours of television."

It amazes me that Walters always comes to O'Donnell's defense and praises her.

I don't get why she does that. Why such loyalty?

Has Walters really tossed her last shreds of integrity out the window?

Brian Frons, the president of daytime programming for the Disney-ABC Television Group, told ABCNEWS.com, "Going in we knew we would have an amazing year with her, and that anything beyond that would be gravy… So here we are a year later, and while we've tried to come to terms on a deal that would extend her co-hosting duties on 'The View,' we find ourselves unable to agree on some key elements."

... "That's the business, and something we knew was a real possibility the entire time. So we part as friends, and hope that we can entice Rosie back next year to take part in a series of one-hour specials for us like our recent show on autism. And maybe, if we're lucky, we'll be able to convince her to guest co-host once in a while as well."

Sure, O'Donnell and ABC part as friends.

O'Donnell got loads of attention and ABC reaped the profits of her offensiveness by the jump in ratings.

Everyone was happy, right?

Wrong.

If all parties were really so happy, then contract negotiations wouldn't have failed. If O'Donnell really was such an asset, ABC would never have let her go. There would be no "key element" that couldn't have been successfully negotiated.

I think the sponsors were getting squeamish about advertising on The View.

Sometimes a jump in ratings isn't worth the plummet in standards of decency and overall civility.

I think this failed contract negotiations story is an excuse to let O'Donnell and ABC bow out of this unholy alliance gracefully.

Well, sort of gracefully. There's nothing remotely graceful about O'Donnell.