Nature is a cycle. The sun rises and the sun sets. The tide flows in and out. And, like the swallows returning to Capistrano, Rosie O’Donnell must follow the compass in her head that tells her when it’s time to leave The View again. That time is now.
It seems like just last year that O’Donnell returned to her spot on ABC’s long-running panel show, garbed in laurels and driving a vanquished Donald Trump and Elisabeth Hasselback before her triumphant chariot. That‘s because it was last year, because you can’t keep Rosie and her signature take on speaking nasal-voiced truth to power in one place for long. To be fair to O’Donnell, two years is longer than most people serve on The View; the majority of Americans have never appeared on the show at all. Also, O’Donnell is leaving to take care of her kids in the wake of a recent divorce from her wife Michelle, which is a significantly better reason to leave than those offered by her old compatriots Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy, who departed to work on the behalf of God and measles, respectively. Glee actress Naya Rivera, who guest-hosted on the show several times last year, will return to The View in the wake of O’Donnell’s departure at the end of this week. There’s no word from ABC, though, on who will be O’Donnell’s permanent replacement.
In other news, Whoopi Goldberg remains trapped eternally within ABC’s studios, an old VHS copy of Jumpin’ Jack Flash aging and decaying in her place.