Rosie O’Donnell Joins “The View” Cast

“The View” managed to replace Meredith Vieira with someone with much higher name recognition: Rosie O’Donnell.

With Rosie O’Donnell as its newest co-host, “The View” brings a six-time Daytime Emmy winner onto a cast that has made a joke out of its inability to win an Emmy. “The View” creator Barbara Walters confirmed Friday that O’Donnell will join her show in September, replacing the “Today” show-bound Meredith Vieira. Walters made the announcement from the stage of the Daytime Emmy awards. “We were amazed when she said yes and we’re thrilled to have her,” Walters said.

It wasn’t quite the secret that Walters wanted, since word of O’Donnell’s selection leaked out on Thursday. O’Donnell made a joking reference to that, noting she had read about her and Walters on the Internet. About her new job, she joked, “it was either that or the celebrity fit club.”

The move marks a plunge back into daytime television for O’Donnell. With a large resume that includes stage, film and TV work, it’s the place where she found the greatest success. She won six Daytime Emmys in six years as best talk show host before shutting down her show because she wanted to spend more time raising a family.

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“The View” got a bigger star than it imagined to replace Vieira, who often serves as the emotional center of an ensemble that also includes Joy Behar, Star Jones Reynolds and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. “They went in a different way,” said Bill Carroll, an expert on the syndication market for Katz Television. “There was a lot of speculation focused on them finding someone who fit in the Meredith Vieira mold and they obviously didn’t go that way.” With two comics in Behar and O’Donnell, “The View” will likely turn into a funnier show, he said. The danger is, between Behar, O’Donnell and Reynolds, “the three of them will want to talk at the same time.”

Well, they needed another fat person now that Jones Reynolds has had her stomach stapled. I will nonetheless continue my streak of not watching the show.

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Rosie O’Donnell Joins “The View” Cast

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