Rosie O'Donnell Announces She's Returning to 'The View' Despite 'Tense Time with Whoopi'
Former “The View” co-host Rosie O’Donnell said she is ready to return to the program for its 30th anniversary season next year in whatever way producers would like to have her.
“I will go on the 30th anniversary next year and be on in whatever way they want me, just as a guest. They’re bringing back all the hosts, I think, for the 30th season,” O’Donnell said on Monday’s episode of “Tangle With Kyle Ridley.”
“I’m proud of that show and what it’s become and how it really speaks to people and to politics. And that was not the case when I first joined,” she added.
O’Donnell co-hosted “The View” for seasons 10 and 18, Page Six reported.
“In addition to an infamous on-air spat with colleague Elisabeth Hasselbeck that led to her initial 2007 exit, the comedian had a ‘tense’ dynamic with Whoopi Goldberg before her 2015 departure,” the news outlet said.
“When I was there last, I had sort of a tense time with Whoopi,” O’Donnell confirmed to Ridley.
“I admire [Whoopi], wanted to be on her team. I admire her EGOT status [i.e., she’s won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards]. I have respect for her. And I expected we would be like Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan passing the ball back and forth and then shooting and leading the team to victory,” O’Donnell told Ridley. “But that’s not exactly what happened.”
“I think maybe she felt encroached upon in some way, and I was never trying to encroach,” she continued. “I was just doing it the way that I knew how to do it, and it didn’t go so well.”
Now “we’ve gotten past it,” O’Donnell said.
Later on Monday, a representative for O’Donnell told Entertainment Weekly that no plans for her return to “The View” have been made.
“There was a mention of inviting some of the hosts back to The View as a guest during season 30, there has not been a formal ask from the show at this time,” the representative said via email.
During O’Donnell’s “Tangle” podcast, she offered some criticism of the program.
“It was a factory where people were being churned in and out and their tenuous security, nobody got to be calm,” she admitted, specifically referencing the show when it was under the direction of late producer Bill Geddie, who died in 2023.
“It also was a show at the time that was run by a man. A show created by a woman, for women, about women, and the man was deciding what we should talk about. And that didn’t sit right with me,” O’Donnell said.
While her return to “The View” is not yet confirmed, O’Donnell is slated to guest host on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” NBC News reported.
The program will have rotating guest hosts while Kimmel takes a two-month summer break.
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