Rosie O’Donnell Should Host Her Own Show on Late Night TV — and Shatter Comedy’s Greatest Glass Ceiling

By Daniel D'Addario

Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

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Late night is in the doldrums. It’s not just that the remaining hosts are taking much of the summer off. But, post-Stephen Colbert on CBS, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s Jimmy Fallon both feel closer to the end of their respective tenures than the beginning. The whole genre feels ripe for a shake-up — lest it go away entirely.

Enter Rosie O’Donnell. The comedian and Donald Trump antagonist just spent a week filling in for Jimmy Kimmel, and the results were TV magic. Over four nights, O’Donnell, the 1990s talk show host whose two stints on “The View” both fizzled out, proved that she may yet have another act, and it may be on one of television’s grandest — diminished, but still grandest — stages.

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