The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) has apparently now seen fit to cancel the very same show that was supposed to be the one predicted of beng capable of breathing new life into the failing cable network. That would be, of course, Rosie O'Donnell's daily diatribe disguised as a talk show. Rosie was yanked after only five short months on the air. The network announced that The Rosie Show will tape its final excruciatingly painful to watch episode on March 20. And what's being billed as the finale will air 10 days later, on March 30. “I thank Rosie from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this journey. She has been an incredible partner, working to deliver the best possible show every single day,” said Ms. O. Adding, “As I have learned in the last 15 months, a new network launch is always a challenge and ratings grow over time as you continue to gather an audience. I’m grateful to Rosie and the dedicated Rosie Show team for giving it their all.” Some of you may remember that the Rosie Show was launched with much fanfare and was even hailed as being a potential game-changer for OWN that would lead the struggling network’s ratings turnaround. The show debuted last October 10 with some pretty decent ratings, considering the show's namesake, about 500,000 viewers, but it faded rapidly, averaging less than 200,000 in its 7-8 PM slot.
In an attempt to salvage this stinker of a show, OWN took some pretty extreme measures, going so far as to attempt a complete revamp which included a move from the Oprah Winfrey Show stage to a new, smaller set and changing executive producers in January. But even all that failed to provide any sort of a ratings boost. Which, I suppose, should not really come as a big surprise to anyone. I mean really, who wants to tune in just to be insulted and wind up on the receiving end of the idiotic rants of an angry, bitter and fat lesbian who has a rather perculiar personality complex, as in she lacks one, and hates everyone who dares to disagree with her. Who watches television to be screamed at and to be told the country that we all live in, sucks. So as her big butt once again ambles off into the sunset, O'Donnell was heard to say, “I loved working with Oprah in the amazing city of Chicago." Going on to say that, “I was welcomed with open arms and will never forget the kindness of all I encountered. It was a great year for me — I wish the show was able to attract more viewers, but it did not. So I am headed back to my home in New York — with gratitude. On we go!” This is the second of OWN’s two daily talk shows to fold. The other, hosted by Winfrey’s friend Gayle King, which also had miniscule ratings, ended when King left to join CBS This Morning.
I think it probably pretty safe to say that those stations who very wisely decided to take a pass on this syndicated daytime disaster that O'Donnell was shopping two years ago are most likely having a real “we told you so” moment and, I'm sure, are feeling as if they dodged a pretty significant bullet here. OWN went for broke with the launch of this ratings debacle, whose October premiere, along with that of Oprah’s Lifeclass, were broadcast on five Discovery networks. The struggling and money-hemorrhaging OWN spent some $10 million to market the two shows, whose debut was touted as being the official/unofficial OWN relaunch. Oh, by the way, that $10 million went where the previous $250 million+ in investment from Discovery also went, right down the proverbial drain. Too bad, so sad! Maybe Oprah should be asking her old buddy Barry "Almighty" for a taxpayer funded bailout! Anyway, after a so so start, as stated above, Rosie's rating quickly headed south right into the basement with her averaging less than 200,000 viewers for most of her short lived run, while Lifeclass was considered as being pretty much DOA. So why did O’Donnell, who had two successful previous daytime talk show stints under her belt, on her own syndicated show and on ABC’s The View, fizzle so quickly?
Well the number of potential reasons are near endless, but her premature demise might have had something to do with the fact that OWN/O’Donnell partnership appeared doomed from the start. I suppose it’s safe to assume that it's hard to gain an audience for a new show on a network that very few people are watching. And, I suppose it didn’t help that Rosie was scheduled at 7 PM, which, I think it safe to say really isn't a time period one normally associates with talk shows. I also think it fair to say that with O’Donnell being somewhat of a polarizing figure and someone with strong political views combined with a rather aggressive style, those too might all have been contributing factors that would have kept station buyers on the sidelines when she was shopping her syndicated talk show in 2010. OWN, which originally branded itself as a network for inspiring women and helping them better their lives, tried to rehabilitate O’Donnell’s image and channel more of her 1990s “queen of nice” bubbly persona than the darker, more controversial one we’ve seen in the final stage of her daytime talk show, on "The View" as well as on her Sirius XM radio show. But that proved to be more than a little difficult as O’Donnell was unable to escape her reputation and get viewers to fully embrace her they way they did 16 years ago.
Like I said, the fact that the boom was dropped on O'Donnell should not have come as any great surprise to anyone. Look, the bottom line here is that the majority of people watch television to either be entertained to, perhaps, get informed about the world around them or both. Obviously, very few people watch because that have some deep yearning to be lectured to, or to have the rather peculiar political beliefs of the show's host, quite literally, shoved down their throats. Personally, and this is just my opinion, it would seem to me that if you decide to use your television show as your own personal soapbox then you really shouldn't be all that surprised if and/or when people decide to no longer tune in to watch. It would just seem to me, that if you are fortunate enough to land a television program of your own, your primary goal should be to do or say things that will convince as many people as possible to be willing to commit time out of their own lives to actually watch you. But O'Donnell's approach seemed to be completely different. She saw it as an opportunity to berate, and to lecture to, those who she saw as opposing her rather unique viewpoint on any number of issues.
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