The Claws Are Coming Out

When Rosie O’Donnell left The View, even Barbara Walters thought she would take the ratings with her. But Wednesday, in an interview on Ryan Seacrest’s morning show, Walters explained that the benefits to Rosie’s departure include more viewers - and more sex talk. Read on for excerpts!:

On replacing Rosie:
“It’s very hard for anyone to follow Rosie, she’s a great talent and she brought a lot of excitement and controversy, of course, to the show. So we’re kind of taking our time…We need two people, as a matter of fact, because we never replaced Star Jones.”

On the possibility of Whoopi Goldberg taking the empty chair:
“We’ve seen Whoopi, and she’s someone we’re considering. Whoopi is wonderful. But this is a big thing to take on…You have to be committed to it.”

On The View’s post-Rosie ratings:
“When Rosie left- because people used to tune in to see ‘what’s going to happen today’- we thought the ratings would go down. But they haven’t…We are perhaps not quite as political, quite as vocal about it as Rosie was, but the topics have been very hot and very fun…and the ratings are up.”

On the show’s hot topics:
“We’ve had a lot of fun with them and there are some things we’re able to discuss that we weren’t able to discuss with Rosie, like heterosexual sex.”

The always candid O’Donnell responded to that last remark of Walters’ the way many of us would. In the Ask Ro section of her website, a fan asked her what she thought and Rosie replied, “She [Walters] is almost 80.”

I applaud Rosie for taking the high road.  Barbara is a smart woman and needs to concentrate on other things but Rosie.

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