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Media maven Oprah Winfrey has called Rosie O’Donnell “a class act” in response to how O’Donnell handled the Oprah Winfrey Network canceling The Rosie Show, a venture that Winfrey asked O’Donnell to do. When the show was on its way out Winfrey also delivered the news of its cancellation to O’Donnell, she told Access Hollywood.
“I’m so proud of the way she handled it,” Winfrey said about informing O’Donnell of the show’s cancellation.
“There was no one else who could make that call but me, because I am the person who got on the plane and went to her house and tried to convince her or see if this is what she wanted to do,” Winfrey told Access Hollywood.
The Rosie Show, premiered in October and aired its final show on March 30, failed to gain sustainable viewership. During its short run O'Donnell managed to cover a variety of LGBT topics.
At the time of the cancellation O’Donnell said, “I was welcomed with open arms and will never forget the kindness of all I encountered. It was a great year for me – I wish the show was able to attract more viewers – but it did not,” according to Deadline.
Despite The Rosie Show’s short-lived run on OWN there are no hard feelings between Winfrey and O’Donnell.
Denying rumors that Winfrey and O’Donnell were at odds over the cancellation Winfrey told Access Hollywood, "Rosie has been nothing but a class act. So all the, 'twee-dee-dee,' the 'dah-dah-dah' about there's, you know, bickering between us or it was a feud is absolutely not true.”
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Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
