O'Donnell gone? Not for another six months.

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on January 10th, 2007

Roger Friedman of Fox News is reporting that Rosie O’Donnell is leaving The View. Actually, Fox News is reporting that Roger Friedman is reporting that, but the truth is merely that O’Donnell, whose contract is up in June, probably won’t renew it. No huge story there.

How this leaves The View for the rest of the TV season remains a mystery. O’Donnell isn’t going to quit, and Walters can’t fire her without ABC’s approval– and she won’t get it. The show is already lacking a fifth correspondent, and without O’Donnell– who replaced Meredith Vieira — it doesn’t have a marquee name as moderator. Of course, we’d love to hear what Joy Behar is saying off camera about all this.

The protracted and public pissing contest between O’Donnell and Donald Trump has spiked the daytime talker’s ratings. Significantly, the show stars two comedians (O’Donnell and Joy Behar) but is about as funny as… a show that doesn’t star two comedians!