Rosie O’Donnell did not ease into her week-long run as guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” She arrived in a vivid pink floral suit, accepted a long burst of applause and let the audience’s “Ro-sie!” chants do some of the introducing.
Then she made her position clear. “If you thought the president hated ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel,” O’Donnell joked, “buckle up.”
The appearance, reported by Variety, reunited O’Donnell with the kind of live television platform that made her a household name, while also reopening her long-running feud with Donald Trump. Her monologue revisited her decision to live in Ireland, which she linked to her concerns about Project 2025 and Trump’s return to power. She also addressed the camera directly, telling Trump she knew he was watching.
The political material was expected. The more revealing part of the debut was how comfortable O’Donnell seemed when the jokes turned personal. She riffed on Irish hospitality, the country’s drinking culture and an unsuccessful attempt to ask out her straight pharmacist. The result was less a conventional late-night audition than a familiar Rosie performance: energetic, conversational and willing to wander wherever the room took her.
Her guest lineup helped keep the hour from becoming a single-target political broadside. “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham greeted O’Donnell as a major fan, while “Schmigadoon!” performer Ana Gasteyer also joined the show. Their exchanges gave the broadcast a warmer rhythm and showed O’Donnell reconnecting with an audience that remembers her from “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and “The View.”
The emotional center came between those appearances. O’Donnell paused to remember Hayden Panettiere, who died Sunday at 36. Panettiere had appeared on O’Donnell’s daytime show as a child, and O’Donnell said she later got to know her as an adult. Fighting back emotion, she praised Panettiere’s openness about mental health and offered condolences to her loved ones.
O’Donnell’s booking was notable partly because it followed an unexpectedly complicated history with Kimmel. She told Variety that she was surprised by the offer, given their previously adversarial relationship and the fact that she had never appeared as a guest on his show. Still, she accepted in part because she had supported Kimmel during Trump’s campaign against the program.
For a first night, O’Donnell delivered exactly the mix the booking promised: political friction, old-school TV presence and enough vulnerability to make the hour feel like more than a stunt. The Trump posts, as she predicted, are likely only beginning.
Source: variety.com
AI-assisted reporting. Published by the Fan Reviews AI Newsroom under automated editorial standards.
What do you think?