Not since Rosie O’Donnell’s less-than-pleasant departure from “The View,” have we seen her back on the tube. However, that could all be changing in 2009 as executives at NBC have been reportedly interested in an idea O’Donnell has been hanging on to for quite some time - 6 years to be exact. In 2002, the same year she ended the run of her talk show, “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” it’s been said that Rosie's been anxious to get back to work, so she developed an idea for a variety-type show, which would include different facets of the arts, such as skits, sketches, comedy, music, and drama.
O’Donnell is said to be interested in performing the show live, perhaps on Sunday evenings, from a Broadway theater. The show, which is reported to be a little "Ed Sullivan-esque," may very well be a welcome change, that is if NBC goes along with the idea, since there aren’t any other shows in prime time which encompasses the kind of entertainment a live variety show could provide. Additionally, there have been other reports which indicate that perhaps talk show veteran Jay Leno was being tapped for a variety show upon his departure from the “Tonight Show” in May of next year, however if so, there may still be room for two.
Clearly, Rosie O’Donnell is no stranger to controversy (think Trump and Hasselbeck), so it will be interesting to see her go live each week and potentially push the envelope, just as she tends to do in her live stand-up performances. O’Donnell was once coined “The Queen of Nice,” but in more recent times it seems her willingness to stand up and be heard is often considered to be a negative more than a positive. O’Donnell has been very vocal on many issues, including President Bush, the war in Iraq, and the events surrounding September 11th, as well as gay marriage and gay adoption issues and for that, O’Donnell has received a lot of backlash from critics who see her as anything but nice, despite her philanthropy - particularly where kids are concerned.
In other Rosie news, the former talk show host recently posted a sentiment on her popular and cryptic blog, Rosie.com, where she says she’s taking August off to “unplug.”
O’Donnell was scheduled to perform in “Les Miserables,” a Hollywood Bowl all-star rendition, but had to pull out of the performance due to her son Parker’s recent broken wrist.
More photos of Rosie attending a book signing for her latest children's read, "Crafty U," on Monday at Books and Books in Coral Gables, Florida.