The View: Will it be rosier without Rosie?

Rosie O’Donnell announced Wednesday that she won’t be back next season as a regular host of The View.

Apparently, she couldn’t work out a deal with ABC. O’Donnell did say she’ll do occasional guest appearances.

Confession: I never watched The View regularly before Rosie O’Donnell came to the chat fest. And now that she’s announced that she won’t be back next season, I’ll be officially deleting The View from my TiVo, unless they get an equally entertaining co-host to fill her spot.

Prior to Rosie’s reign, The View was, I’ll say it, boring. Meredith Vieira was always politically correct and the rest of the ladies just talked over one another incessantly, which made me crazy.

With Rosie at the table, I tuned in to see a glimpse of the Rosie I remembered from her old talk show. Boy, did we get that and a whole lot more. She brought with her the audience prizes, give-aways to home viewers, a sense of fun and personality, and Broadway show features.

She also brought with her a fiery political discourse with a liberal slant.

Not everyone liked Rosie’s version of the The View. Some said the constant heated political arguments among the women during the Hot Topics section of the show had transformed The View from a fun-filled talk show to a tense debate, more appropriate for Crossfire. Others found Rosie to be overbearing and rude to Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the one co-host who often disagreed with her political views. (I admit I was shocked and saddened during one political debate when Rosie angrily discounted Elisabeth’s viewpoint, saying she was too young to understand.)

Will The View return to its “rosy” format after Rosie leaves, abandoning the political debates for more comforting show topics? No one knows for sure.

What is certain is that love her or hate her, Rosie made The View appointment television. And I’ll miss her.

Hit "play" below to see Rosie's announcement on The View.

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