Rosie O’Donnell is offering a new glimpse at the behind-the-scenes push-and-pull with ABC during her Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest-hosting stint last month—including two instances in which she says the network stepped in.
Appearing on The Jann Arden Podcast, O’Donnell revealed that ABC rejected an Epstein-related segment she wanted to do on her final night behind Kimmel’s desk. Rather than drop the idea, she decided to pursue it on her own.
Two weeks later, O’Donnell self-released a video featuring eight women who identify as survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, culminating in a group performance of Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.” She now says that project grew out of what she had originally hoped to do on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“My idea for the last night was to do the Epstein reveal,” O’Donnell told Arden, “and they said that they were certain that could not happen.”
O’Donnell’s response: “Well, then I’m going to do it myself.”
Notably, O’Donnell wore white on her final night guest-hosting Kimmel. In discussing the survivor video with Arden, she said she had hoped women would “all dress in white” in solidarity with survivors of child sexual abuse.
The Epstein segment wasn’t the only plan O’Donnell says ABC stopped during her week as guest host. She also revealed that she had planned to close her very first Kimmel monologue with the Trump-themed parody of “Danny Boy” that viewers ultimately saw on her final night.
“My idea was to do ‘Donnie Boy’ the first night and right before the 4:00 time that we started, the network called and said, ‘We don’t want you to do it,’” O’Donnell said.
The call left her scrambling to change the show.
“I had five minutes to prepare a different monologue for an ending to the monologue,” she said. “Five minutes.”
That revelation puts a new lens on O’Donnell’s Kimmel debut.
As LateNighter reported at the time, O’Donnell went through the entire Aug. 17 episode without once saying Donald Trump’s name. Instead, much of her opening monologue drew on the storytelling from her one-woman show, Common Knowledge. She did make several unmistakable references to Trump, including calling him “Mango Mussolini” and telling the camera, “Hi, I know you’re watching.”
O’Donnell told Arden that some of that restraint was intentional. She said she had made “an active choice” to approach Trump differently rather than going after him “aggressively like a pitbull.”
But “Donnie Boy,” she says, was specifically stopped by the network that afternoon.
O’Donnell said she understood the network’s decision better the following day, when Disney and ABC filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission over its decision to require eight Disney-owned ABC stations to undergo unusually early license-renewal proceedings.
Disney’s Aug. 18 lawsuit alleged the FCC was retaliating against ABC over programming disliked by the Trump administration. The FCC has denied that characterization, arguing that the review falls within its oversight of broadcasters.
“Had they said to me, there’s something coming down corporately tomorrow and we would prefer you waited, I just would have waited,” O’Donnell told Arden.
She ultimately got her chance.
Three nights later, O’Donnell performed “Donnie Boy” to close out her final Kimmel monologue, urging Trump to resign and “make this country great again.”
On the podcast, O’Donnell expressed gratitude toward Jimmy Kimmel for taking a chance on her. She said she learned only after she had agreed to guest host that Kimmel had announced her booking before getting it cleared by ABC.
“When I heard that he had risked that, stuck his neck out for me, I really wanted to deliver,” O’Donnell said.
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