ABC is beginning its reconstruction of “The View” by bringing back Rosie O’Donnell, one of the most famous co-hosts from the talk show’s history.
O’Donnell will rejoin the talk show in the fall, according to a Twitter message from the show’s main account. The announcement confirmed a TMZ report this week.
ABC previously announced that of all the current co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg would be the only one back for the coming season. Barbara Walters signed off in May, and two others, Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd, are going to depart this summer.
O’Donnell didn’t immediately comment on the announcement. On Twitter, she posted a photo of her family vacationing in Florida.
O’Donnell co-hosted “The View” during its 10th season in 2006-07. Her on-air battles with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck — over issues like the Iraq war, which O’Donnell was vehemently against — were loud and legendary.
“Their back-and-forth has helped buoy ratings,” The Los Angeles Times reported at the time, but the tumult was sometimes tough to watch and changed the usually cheery climate of the talk show. O’Donnell left after just nine months.
And she hadn’t been back until this year, when she visited in February for a “Hot Topics” segment. “This feels kind of weird but good weird,” she quipped.
She also made a joke about being “exiled again” if Hasselbeck were still there.
Hasselbeck is now a co-host of “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News Channel. With O’Donnell’s return in the news this week, Hasselbeck interrupted her vacation to call in to “Fox & Friends” and comment about the rumors on Wednesday.
She said O’Donnell was “at ease” and “walked around with such control” when O’Donnell, Hasselbeck and the rest of the former co-hosts reunited for a farewell to Walters in May.
“I do believe this has been in the works for a very, very long time,” Hasselbeck said.
ABC has at least two more seats to fill around “The View” table, and there has been some speculation that the show might add a male co-host for the first time.
A spokeswoman for the show said this week that “The View” “will be moving in an exciting new direction next season and ABC has made decisions to evolve the show creatively.”
