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OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has canceled its low-rated Rosie O’Donnell daily talk show after five months on the air. The network just announced that The Rosie Show will tape its final episode this coming Tuesday, March 20. 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 Oprah Winfrey. “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.”
The Rosie Show launched with much fanfare and was hailed as a potential game-changer for OWN that would lead the struggling network’s ratings turnaround. Rosie premiered on October 10 to decent ratings — about 500,000 viewers — but quickly faded, averaging less than 200,000 in its 7-8 PM slot. OWN tried a complete revamp, including moving the show from the Oprah Winfrey Show stage to a new, smaller set and changing executive producers in January, but the shake-up failed to provide a ratings boost. “I loved working with Oprah in the amazing city of Chicago,” O’Donnell said. “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.
Related: The Quick Demise Of Rosie O’Donnell’s OWN Talk Show: What Went Wrong?
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That’s too bad. I was actually really starting to like the new format with Rosie doing the one-on-one interviews without an audience. I realize I was probably the only person actually watching it, but I thought Rosie did some fantastic interviews. Oh well — sucks for me.
At least Rosie is able to get off the ship before it completely sinks. I predict Discovery will rebrand the channel before the end of the year. OWN is a lost cause.
Well Piers Morgan uses her now as his substitute. Who knows how long HE will be on TV?
Okay… Took the time to read every post. Recurrent Theme: Rosie’s One on One Format was taking off via a clear and steady pace.
How about sticking with the Rosie show and giving it a chance to grow as Oprah starts pulling in Bobbi Christina Brown type ratings-worthy interviews? Rosie is really talented in a talk show format. Hopefully she’ll get another chance on a network that people can find.
it would be great if Oprah lets Rosie do specials on OWN from time to time. Rosie did the best interviews with Dr. Oz and Chelsea Handler that i’ve seen (and those two have been interviewed on 1000 talk shows). i bet Rosie could land a couple of big ratings guests and do periodic specials like Barbara Walters did on ABC.
I wonder if Rosie is going to land somewhere else on OWN, like on another daypart. Or are they going to pay out her contract. I feel bad for the Harpo employees in Chicago.
Rosie was the only thing I watched on OWN. The only other good show was that Oprah Season 25 Behind The Scenes reality show, but that ended…
I agree with this. Although I watched the Behind the Scenes reality show with a morbid, self-hating fascination, I actually genuinely enjoyed Rosie’s talk show… And yes, the one-on-one format has been terrific for her. I hope she lands another TV gig soon.
Watching the few minutes here and there of behind the scenes cemented my dislike for Oprah and her team of goons. I found their behavior close to dispicable at times. Had no idea those peole were so self-serving. Silly me: I thought Oprah operated on a higher level.
Yeah, the higher level is above all of us.
OMG, me too. I never watched the oprah show but I loved the behind the scene show. I only watched oprah behind the scenes and rosie on OWN.
ROSIE sold her Chicago house several weeks ago and then I knew it was over. They just waiting until now to announce it.
I have mixed feelings about the cancellation. Rosie is a very hard lady to like and to root for. Oprah should have known this. at the same time, I don’t like to see anyone fail. Rosie failed and should put OWN 10000% behind her. No looking back. Oprah failed also in thinking her the Oprah name / brand was all that was needed.
It’s interesting — after watching her in the one-on-one format, I began to find her incredibly likable. She comes off as very genuine and like a normal person. Never expected that from her because I had the same general impression before. Oprah, in her new interviews, comes off as fake and manipulative.
Originally, Oprah wanted Jenny McCarthy and she backed out. I wonder why? Nobody’s talking, but it was probably because of a) Oprah wanted her staff to backup Jenny in production and use her Harpo Studio (it is EMPTY) and b)money.
OWN, the Costa Concordia of television.
Diabolically hilarious
How many more years will OWN last? I would love to see it do better, but it just doesn’t feel like it will. My prediction is that if the network ends, Oprah starts doing event specials on ABC (tied to the Academy Awards, etc), more acting, producing, she’ll do a Broadway play, etc. Feels like a big mistake to lose Rosie. I was a fan.
Can’t help but think Rosie is some sort of sacrificial lamb, given the continued mess going on at OWN. I thought I’d read that the ratings were slowly picking up with the change in format, but I’m guessing her rumored desire to move the show out of Chicago and to New York didn’t sit well with the team at the network.
Once the show found its voice, it was absolutely terrific. Here’s hoping Rosie takes that to heart and gives a show another shot on a network that’s not so problem-plagued.
Yeah, I agree. Feels like that.
Who else but Winfrey could characterize a series cancellation as a personal invitation milestone in her personal “journey?” Get a grip lady.
Rosie burned her cred with the average viewer years ago when she threw that public fit, and single-handedly torpedoed a successful movie career, magazine, and television show all in one big blow. She had everything, and threw it all away.
Her and Oprah both should have known that people’s memories aren’t that short, and her ‘sweet girl’ image isn’t coming back.
I think Rosie may be more liked than you’d expect. The problem, with both Oprah and Rosie, is that the core audience for their original shows does not subscribe to cable (or doesn’t get the cable package that includes OWN). They would watch it if they could — they just can’t. (But I have OWN on my cable package, and I still don’t watch it. Although, I’m male.)
It seems to me that OWN and Rosie’s show are necessary for American women and the major cable providers are blocking that access. Maybe Congress could pass a bill forcing cable providers to give female viewers access to OWN free of charge, or maybe a Georgetown law student could go before Congress and whine and complain that it’s just too expensive to purchase cable service and therefore the taxpayers should just give it to her. I’m sure that will help OWN get the viewers they are being unfairly denied.
You might have a great idea here if OWN had the ability to be used for hormone therapy or treating ovarian cysts, which was the issue at hand when the Georgetown law student was asked to speak before Congress. Also, your idea would be more appropriate if Congress allowed insurance companies to cover ESPN for their policy holders, the way they do for viagra and vasectomies. Interestingly enough, I’ve yet to hear any Republican complain about those being covered.
Ovarian cysts were *one* of the things Sandra Fluke spoke about; it wasn’t the entirety of her testimony, nor was it the bulk of it. The gist of her testimony was that the government should force all companies who purchase insurance, and all insurance carriers, to cover birth control and at no-cost/no-copay to the customer.
Following that logic, OWN should be carried by all cable companies and put into their channel line-up at no cost to the consumer, because OWN is an essential part of a woman’s health (where else are women going to be taught how to think and how to “live their best life” if not by Oprah?).
Whether it’s SPIKE, OWN, vasectomies, Viagra, condoms or birth control pills, the government shouldn’t be forcing anyone, any company, or any insurance carrier to purchase them. The government should keep its hands off our vaginas, testicles, buttocks, and cable companies.
I agree that Rosie showed her true self over and over again in the public arena. She’s a big mouth that isn’t going to have a show once again.I don’t know why Oprah ever hooked up with Rosie in the first place. Hey Rosie, why don’t you call the donald and ask him for a job!!!
i thought rosie was the only show on own.
While I was expecting the plug to be pulled on her show eventually, because despite her fans she’s an extremely divisive figure who literally repels a large segment of the audience, I wasn’t expecting it to be pulled so soon. OWN must be hemorhaging money worse than we know, because most media outlets will try to hold onto someone who is “big” in the eyes of their social circle if not in the eyes of the general audience.
The universe has a way of correcting itself.
this sux. the one on one interviews Rosie did with Kathy Griffin and Chelsea Handler are some of the best interviews I’ve seen on television in the past few years. Rosie is a polarizing figure but she is a fantastic host-really engaged and cares more than any other talk show host out there.
Question..how was this the best content that she could deliver? Her first of many mistakes was being on this new netowrk that has failed to gain any kind of traction, while the nitwits at Discovery foolishly continues to sink more hard-earned money into this venture. Secondly, Rosie never fit in Chicago and her personality clashed with what she was trying to do to start with. After hearing of the exits by her staff and the changes to this show, it was quite obvious she wasn’t going to have this show for much longer. She sold her house in Chicago and moved back to NYC where she likes it better. Oprah continues to fail at bringing ratings for this network, UNLESS she is on the air. This wasn’t a surprise in the least bit and we all knew this was going to happen with Rosie’s show. The next question is when does Discovery finally pull the plug on this network and be done with Oprah once and for all and cease sinking more money into a network that will never even reach a solid 1 rating on average.
Rosie was sensational covering for Piers Morgan last night.
If CNN or MSNBC were smart, they would give Rosie a show ASAP. Same one-on-one format. And let her do it from New York. (In fact, she’s much better than Piers Morgan).
MSNBC and CNN’s ratings are already scraping the bottom of the barrel. Adding Rosie to the line-up will only make things worse. Rosie went to OWN because both were desperate. Rosie can’t, and won’t, land a prime-time gig on a respectable network. She’s finished. Dried up. Used. Washed-up.
I hope Rosie goes to a new network and does much better in the ratings. My sense is that this is more of a network problem than it is a Rosie problem.
It’s both. The only gig Rosie could get these days was on OWN; if Rosie sunk any lower she’d be doing public access. Rosie repels far more viewers than she attracts, and Oprah lost touch with her audience years ago when she decided to go political; at that point there was no turning back. They’ve both burned too many bridges (or they simply buckled under the enormous weight) to ever be as popular as they once were.
You are actually quite wrong on this statement. She was offered a network spot but decided on OWN because of Oprah and because she would have more freedom to make the show she wanted.
This is a shame. It was the only show on OWN I liked. I think the new format is working better than before. Another show not given enough time to find an audience. Is OWN going to have Oprah on every show in order to survive?? I can’t imagine ROSIE cost too much with the new format. I hope she can do this new format elsewhere on a better network. Another mistake by OWN.
What a big old waste of money.
Whatever stops a cow from mooing
Rosie stormed off The View.
Rosie’s network variety show lasted one episode.
The Rosie Show lasted 5 months.
Rosie’s TV days are over. Young new talent is out there. Who wants to put their money on something that has consistently failed in a variety of formats? Whether we liked the Rose Show one-on-one format or not, the masses rejected it.
I don’t care either way, but your comment is pretty flimsy. Look how she resurrected the ratings on The View, and it’s been a stronger show (and more successful) ever since. All of the changes she made to the format are still in effect today.
What variety show has been successful in the last 20 years? That had nothing to do with Rosie — it’s just a dead format.
For the TV interview show, it sounds like she finally found the right fit at this stage of her career/life with the one-on-one conversations. She should do another show (on a network people actually watch) and it should be in that format.
I was never a fan of Rosie, but I stumbled upon her show a couple of times over the last two months (without the audience, sitting at the desk) and thought it was really good. Every time I told someone to check it out, they thought I was crazy (I’m a mid-40s man), but when they actually watched it, they were pleasantly surprised. She’s very natural and a surprisingly great interviewer. I’m sure she’ll land somewhere soon.
This upsets me. I really believe that Rosie is one of the best interviewers on tv right now. The one on one format was perfect. I have lost all respect for Oprah after the exploitation of Whitney Houston’s daughter. All time low for Oprah.
It seems to me that Oprah, with all her media connections, did not fully get behind OWN. As many have stated here, a majority of Americans don’t have access to OWN on Cable. If you’re going to start a new network, you can’t use a better example than Ted Turner starting CNN. He lived and breathed it for many years. OWN seemed like a hobby for Oprah. Had she approached it with as much energy as she had 30 years ago when her career started, it would have succeeded. But she’s made it and she’s not hungry anymore. OWN is a failure. Rosie will find another gig.