When Oprah Winfrey retired from her super successful daytime talk show last year to launch her OWN Network, she hand picked Rosie O’Donnell as her heir apparent. But after less than a year, that experiment has now fizzled.
Following excruciatingly dismal ratings, Oprah has pulled the plug on “The Rosie Show.”
In a statement released Friday night, Oprah said, “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. 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” debuted to a viewership of 500,000 but has since slipped to a bleak 150,000. The show began with a live studio audience inside the former “Oprah Show” studio in Chicago, but was recently revamped to be a smaller show, in a smaller studio, with no audience and a one-on-one discussion instead of a variety show format. It didn’t work. With the OWN Network having problems of its own, the only option was for Oprah to cut her losses, cancel the show and allow Rosie to move back to New York.
The final episode of “The Rosie Show” will tape March 20 and air March 30.
Can't say that I'm surprised by this.The truth is, I don't watch a lot of tv at all (about 2 to 3 hrs total per week) and I very rarely watch OWN. But it seems to me, for quite some time now, that whatever appeal Rosie once had to draw in a sizeable audience she lost that appeal several years ago and hasn't been able to rise anywhere close to the level of her previous success.