Rosie O'Donnell reveals she will return to 'The View' for anniversary, details tension with Whoopi Goldberg

Rosie O'Donnell revealed Monday that she plans to return to "The View" for its 30th anniversary season during a podcast interview and explained why she hasn't appeared much since exiting her co-host position.

During an interview on "The Tangle" podcast with host Kyle Ridley, the former co-host of the liberal talk show was asked if "The View" had asked her to be a guest on the show.

O'Donnell detailed a tense moment she had with co-host and moderator Whoopi Goldberg the last time she was on the show.

"They've asked me before, but you know, when I was there last, I had sort of a tense time with Whoopi," she said. "I admire her EGOT status, I have respect for her, and I expected that we would be like, you know, Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan passing the ball back and forth and then shooting, and, you know, leading the team to victory. But that's not exactly what happened."

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"And I think maybe she felt encroached upon in some way, and I was not trying to encroach," O'Donnell continued. "I was just doing it the way that I knew how to do it, and it didn't go so well."

O'Donnell said the two have moved past the tension but that she didn't want to go back on and make it awkward.

"She's a woman who supports women, as am I," she said. "And so, I will go on the 30th anniversary this year and be on in whatever way they want me — just as a guest, you know. They're bringing back all the hosts, I think, for the 30th season. And, you know, I'm pretty proud of that show, what it's become, and how it really speaks to the people and to politics."

She told Ridley she had wanted her and Goldberg to be best friends.

"Well, I wanted us to be best friends, too, to tell you the truth," O'Donnell said. "I went to her house before I went on it, and we had a lovely lunch and talked about everything. And I was like, 'I'm here for you.' And, you know, I thought I was going in safe and sound. And it didn't turn out that way from day one. I made the mistake of throwing to a commercial when she was still talking."

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O'Donnell said one of the show's employees was gesturing for a commercial break, and so she broke for one while Goldberg was still speaking. O'Donnell said Goldberg was "very upset" at the time.

The ABC talk show did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.

"The hard-left Trump-loathing audience of 'The View' would clearly love a little Rosie reunion, despite her massive ego creating tensions on the set," Media Research Center (MRC) director of media analysis Tim Graham told Fox News Digital in a statement. "You have to laugh when she compares herself and Whoopi Goldberg to Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, like they are the world champions of political hot takes." 

"This show is a feminist fever swamp that specializes in conspiracy theories and misinformation. It's not a 'bona fide news program' in any way," Graham added. 

"The View" is currently facing an FCC investigation over its alleged failure to provide equal treatment for political candidates. ABC has asserted that the FCC previously recognized "The View" as a "bona fide" news program in 2002, making it an exception to equal time rules.

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The Disney-owned network filed new comments in early July on a petition it initially sent to the FCC in May to have the show be declared a "bona fide" news program. In the months since, the petition has garnered over 77,000 comments defending the show out of concern for government interference.

"The commenters are right to be concerned," the network said. "The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor’s chair. Yet that is the seat the Commission now proposes to take — deciding which broadcast programs qualify as legitimate news and, for those it finds wanting, compelling them to surrender their airtime to guests they never chose to feature."

ABC also asserted that the FCC previously recognized "The View" as a "bona fide" news program in 2002 and that the agency's animosity towards the show is due to President Donald Trump.