NEED TO KNOW
Rosie O’Donnell said she’d like to return to daytime television with a show centered on “hope” and “peaceful joy”
The former talk show host added that she’d focus on human interest stories over celebrity interviews
O’Donnell also revealed she would likely bring the show to a streaming platform, but not until “Trump is no longer in power”
Rosie O’Donnell is imagining a return to daytime television — one she hopes would bring “an hour of peaceful joy” to viewers.
The comedian and former talk show host shared her vision for a modern version of The Rosie O’Donnell Show during an upcoming episode of The Tangle with Kyle Ridley podcast, revealing that while her representatives are exploring opportunities, she wouldn’t want to launch a new show until after Donald Trump leaves office.
When host Kyle Ridley asked what a daytime show would look like if she returned more than 30 years after The Rosie O’Donnell Show first premiered, O’Donnell said she’d keep much of what made the original successful.
“[It would] look a lot like my old show, to tell you the truth,” she said. “I think America wants nostalgia. I think what they don’t want is celebrity culture. I think celebrity culture is dead in America.”
Instead of relying on A-list guests promoting their latest projects, O’Donnell said she’d focus on uplifting stories, Broadway performances and audience participation.
“I would like to do mostly human interest stories, tell good news, have fun and games with the people like we used to, get to have Broadway on, and if a celebrity wants to come on and chat, that’s fantastic,” she said. “But it wouldn’t be because they had a movie to promote. It wouldn’t be that you would see them on every other talk show with the same lead-in questions and the same stories.”
Rosie O’Donnell on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen”
Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
“I would like to take someone who says, ‘Who wants to come and have fun for 20 minutes? Who wants to come and play a game? Who wants to come and give away prizes to the audience?’ Like that’s what I would like to do: bring back hope, bring back an hour of peaceful joy,” she continued.
O’Donnell acknowledged that if she were to return, it would likely be on a streaming platform rather than in traditional syndication.
“Would it be streaming? I suppose because the syndication market is pretty much dead, and I think I would be open to doing it on a streaming service,” she said, adding that her agents are “taking meetings and figuring out what would be the best option.”
Still, she said she isn’t ready to make that move just yet.
“It would be when Trump is no longer in power. That’s when I would want to start, and that’s really when the healing must begin,” O’Donnell said. “Healing must begin in this country. And if I could be in any way part of that, I would be very, very happy.”
O’Donnell previously hosted the Emmy-winning The Rosie O’Donnell Show from 1996 to 2002 before joining The View as a moderator from 2006 to 2007. She later returned to the daytime talk show for a five-month run between September 2014 and February 2015.
Rosie O’Donnell arrives in Australia ahead of her “Common Knowledge” show at the Sydney Opera House
Credit: Brendon Thorne/Getty
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Her comments come after she has continued to speak candidly about her decades-long feud with Trump. Earlier this month, O’Donnell told PEOPLE that the president’s remarks about her no longer affect her the way they once did.
“It used to be when our president would say things about me, it would be like, whoa,” she said. “If you had written this as a movie — a stand-up comic makes fun of a reality show host, and he ends up being the president, and then he doesn’t shut up about her for 20 years — it would be unbelievable. The fact that it’s my life is very trippy.”
O’Donnell’s episode of The Tangle with Kyle Ridley podcast will be released on Monday, Aug. 3.
Read the original article on People