Rosie O’Donnell made a surprise return to the United States in early June after moving to Ireland amid a feud with President Trump. The comedian attended the Tony Awards days after revealing a secret facelift. Her former The View co-host, Whoopi Goldberg, hinted that the comedian was back in the States to work on multiple projects. One of the projects is replacing a popular late-night host. Keep reading for all the details.
Popular Late-Night Host Leaving
Late-night shows are on the cusp of extinction. CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last year. It went off the air in May with a star-studded finale. The decision to cancel the show came right before a merger between CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, and Skydance Media. The move was described as financial, though many suspect the motive was political after Colbert’s relentless attacks on President Trump.
With Stephen Colbert off the air, Jimmy Kimmel is now the harshest of the President’s critics. Jimmy Kimmel Live! takes digs at the current administration in nearly every episode. The talk show host was suspended in September 2025 for his comments on Charlie Kirk’s murder. His suspension was lifted after several days, but a cloud of cancellation has been over the show ever since.
He revealed on Thursday, June 18, that he’s going off the air later this month. But this time, the departure is voluntary. Jimmy Kimmel plans to take two months off for summer vacation starting at the end of June. But instead of airing reruns, he hand-picked several guest hosts to fill in while he’s gone. One of the guest hosts has a longstanding feud with the President.
The View Alum Rosie O’Donnell Among Replacement As ‘Special Treat’
Rosie O’Donnell and President Trump’s feud goes back to her time on The View. She publicly called Trump out on the ABC talk show in 2006 for allowing Miss USA Tara Conner to keep her crown after a partying and alcohol scandal. This was a decade before he became President. He responded at the time by calling her a “loser” in an interview with PEOPLE magazine.
Jimmy Kimmel revealed that Rosie O’Donnell is one of the guest hosts of his late-night show this summer, “as a special treat for our commander-in-chief.” The late-night host joked, “And all I ask in return, Mr. President, is that you don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone. Okay?”
Finally, Tiffany Haddish, Colman Domingo, Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, and Jelly Roll are the other summer guest hosts for Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The late-night show will air two weeks of reruns before the guest hosts start on Monday, July 6. Jimmy Kimmel returns in September after Labor Day. However, his current contract expires in May 2027. Share your reaction to Rosie O’Donnell guest-hosting the late-night show in the comments.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger
