Desperate Rosie O’Donnell flatters herself by reposting opinion piece calling for her to take Jimmy Kimmel’s job
Rosie O’Donnell is apparently raring for a TV comeback, even if it’s at the expense of the late-night host who gave her a chance at a return to the limelight.
O’Donnell, 64, shared an op-ed floating her as a potential permanent Jimmy Kimmel replacement within minutes of it being published on Monday, fresh off her four-day guest-hosting run.
The Variety piece noted how Kimmel ‘perennially makes noise about wanting to leave [Jimmy Kimmel Live], but hasn’t yet.’
It also acknowledged how the comic ‘swore off returning to the US before the end of the Trump presidency.’ She moved to Ireland to escape it days before the start of Trump’s second term.
‘But one wonders if the industry, not just viewers, shares the sense that the TV landscape is significantly more interesting with O’Donnell in it,’ the publication’s chief correspondent, Daniel D’Addario, asked.
He cited such interest as the very thing the current late night landscape is currently ‘lacking.’
And after ‘four remarkable nights of old-school television’ last week, O’Donnell now holds all the cards, according to D’Addario.
‘If this is O’Donnell’s moment, it’s not because of who the President is,’ he remarked – referencing the main source of O’Donnell’s modern material.
Rosie O’Donnell, fresh off her four-day Jimmy Kimmel guest-hosting run, is being floated as a potential permanent addition to the late night landscape by Variety Chief Correspondent Daniel D’Addario in an op-ed on Monday
![The piece noted how Kimmel, currently in his 24th year, 'perennially makes noise about wanting to leave [Jimmy Kimmel Live], but hasn't yet.' His contract is set to expire in May](https://i.dailymail.com/1s/2026/08/25/17/110560775-16078923-image-m-60_1787674063181.jpg)
The piece noted how Kimmel, currently in his 24th year, ‘perennially makes noise about wanting to leave [Jimmy Kimmel Live], but hasn’t yet.’ His contract is set to expire in May
Rather, it was O’Donnell ‘remind[ing] us’ it was her time to shine, at a time where late night is in desperate need of ‘a shake-up.’
‘[A]nd the results were TV magic.’
D’Addario further framed the four nights of Trump-bashing as proof the comic ‘may yet have another act.’
‘She was coming to the show with the zeal of someone who’s been out of the game too long and eager for her at-bat.’
The correspondent complimented O’Donnell’s approach to ‘cracks about Trump’s daily misdeeds,’ which he said were delivered ‘with a sense of real craft.’
‘The sort that comes when you’re excited to be somewhere and not just clocking in for season umpteen.’
Kimmel – currently in his 24th season – has a contract set to expire in May, ABC has previously said.
‘O’Donnell’s hiring would be a moment that would electrify late night, drawing in an underserved audience of women and gay men and generating reams of press,’ wrote D’Addario, before being met with some kind words from O’Donnell in return.
O’Donnell took to Instagram to share the article shortly afterward, complimenting D’Adario. She told the Tangle podcast last month, however, that her team is currently charting potential paths for a full-time television return
‘Thank u daniel – very much,’ the comic wrote in an Instagram post capped by heart emojis. O’Donnell shared a link to the Variety piece in her stories as well.
On Thursday, during the grand finale of her guest-hosting stint, O’Donnell laughed off rumors she is attempting a permanent TV comeback.
‘The truth is, the real reason I returned to ABC was to become the next Golden Bachelorette, Gay Edition,’ she joked.
She told the Tangle podcast last month, however, that her team is currently charting potential paths for a full-time television return.
The Rosie O’Donnell Show had a six-year run in the late 90s and early 2000s. She then had two separate stints on The View – one that lasted less than a year in 2006, and one that only spanned six months in 2014.
She left the show in February of the following year, for health and personal reasons.
O’Donnell said Monday she received the offer to guest-host from Kimmel personally. Both are fierce critics of Trump.
‘I asked one of [Donald Trump’s] all-time favorites – Rosie O’Donnell – to be here to keep the hits coming,’ Kimmel – currently on a two-month vacation – happily told viewers back in June.
O’Donnell four days behind the desk were dominated by Donald Trump-centered material. She moved from the US to Ireland early last year to escape the Republican’s second term. A return to TV would mean a return to the US. She has promised not to do so until Trump is out of office
‘You’re welcome,’ Kimmel told the LA crowd, calling it a ‘special treat for our commander-in-chief.’
Kimmel and Trump have been wrapped in a feud since the latter called for the late night host’s show to be canceled last year after Kimmel made disparaging remarks about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
O’Donnell, in June, told Andy Cohen she would be open to guest-hosting the even more left-leaning View as well. The comedienne was long a panelist on the program, with her back-and-forths with Trump beginning there.
‘Left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair. Had kids both times,’ O’Donnell said in 2006.
Asked about his tendency to use derogatory terms to describe women, Trump quipped in 2015: ‘Only Rosie O’Donnell.’
She said on Monday: ‘Right now, he’s in the White House crying because I haven’t mentioned him,’ before four straight nights of barbs that eventually earned a response from the White House.
‘Rosie O’Donnell is a nasty woman and a total slob whose brain has been completely destroyed by Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ a White House spokesperson told the Daily Mail on Wednesday, after O’Donnell touted the fact she was ‘back in the spotlight all thanks to President Oompa J. Loompa.’
