Oprah Winfrey herself made the call to cancel Rosie O'Donnell's talk show on OWN, Ramin Setoodeh reveals in an extensive Daily Beast piece that goes behind the scenes. Setoodeh talked to staffers on the show and discovered problems on both sides: O'Donnell was a less-than-easygoing boss ("It was such a f---ing hellhole," says one former staffer), but the network also didn't make it easy for her. The show started its short-lived six-month run as a critically praised comedy hour, but ratings were weak, and it eventually devolved into a canned interview program with no live audience.
Contributing to the show's failure: a bad time slot, 74 different lead-ins, C-list guests due to the show's location in Chicago, massive staff turnover, and O'Donnell's own confusion over what her show was supposed to be. But Rosie also contributed to the issues, staffers say, often losing her temper; she once yelled at a publicist backstage and in another incident she scolded a director in front of the audience. She also clashed with multiple staffers including her bandleader, whom she expected to be able to play Broadway songs with no advance notice. Meanwhile, one person is predictably happy about the show's cancelation: Donald Trump, who gleefully told Fox News this morning that "Rosie fails at everything," Mediaite reports. (More Rosie O'Donnell stories.)
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