Rosie O'Donnell is on the warpath again, losing it over attempts by producers of "The View" to attract a younger audience, including flash sales on the show's website, a new high-tech looking set, and plans to hire a fifth, younger host.
When 85-year-old Barbara Walters retired this year from the show, which she founded, "The View" producers hired three new hosts, all younger than the show's only remaining and now oldest member Whoopi Goldberg, who is 58. Along with Rosie O'Donnell, 52, and actress Rosie Perez, 50, the show added conservative commentator Nicole Wallace, 42, in an attempt to skew the shows demographic somewhat younger after the departure of Walters.
Apparently, the strategy isn't working, and Rosie is reportedly fed up with producer's latest efforts to attract younger viewers, who are flocking to the competition. The new champion in the coveted 18-34 demographic, which is most desired by advertisers, is the "The Wendy Williams Show." It has been steadily growing in the past several years and has a strong social media following. New upstart "The Real", which like "The View" features a panel of women but whose host's median age is much younger than that of "The View," is also surprisingly beating the veteran show, and producers of "The View" are apparently panicking.
They've already changed the set twice since the season started, giving it a younger, high-tech look with colored panels on the jumbotron behind the hosts, and now their latest move has apparently set Rosie off. When Whoopi Goldberg announced Monday that the show would be presenting a "flash sale" segment which offered discounted products to be featured on the show's website, Rosie shot back, "I didn't know we were doing that. That makes us like the home shopping club, what is that?" When Whoopi half-jokingly responded that "It's something that allows us to keep changing our set," Rosie kept her cool on-air, but the after-show production meeting was a different story.
At the meeting she reportedly confronted producers, "'Why didn't someone tell me about this segment? Who in the hell approved that concept? I hated it on the previous version of the show. I won't stand for this crap." When producers tried explaining that the segment attracts and tests positively with younger, more tech-savvy viewers who will visit the website, Rosie got even more irate, yelling "Don't give me that bull***t. Stop trying to change this show to get younger viewers. This is not what I signed up for." The flash sale segments are a regular feature on Wendy Williams and other shows that attract a younger audience and embrace social media.
In fact, producers are reportedly seeking to add a fifth host to the show soon who is under 35 and has a strong social media presence, a move which also has O'Donnell riled up. Expect the fireworks to continue as she continues to push the show's producers to stop chasing a younger audience and aim to satisfy its current one instead.
