Rosie O'Donnell Confirms Season 30 Return to The View as Guest After 2 Stints

Q: After claiming producers set up her past feud, will Rosie O'Donnell risk returning for The View's 30th anniversary?

Yes. Rosie O’Donnell has already said she will return for *The View*’s 30th anniversary, but only as a guest. That makes the “risk” relatively limited. Despite her long and sometimes bruising history with the show, O’Donnell said on the *Tangle* podcast that she will appear “in whatever way they want” and clarified she is coming back “just as a guest,” not rejoining as a co-host. That matters because her recent comments about producers allegedly setting up her 2007 clash with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and her account of a tense dynamic with Whoopi Goldberg during her 2014-15 stint, were framed as reflections on how the show operated then, not as a refusal to engage now. Her current posture is notably softer. She said she is “pretty proud” of what *The View* has become and has also emphasized that she and Goldberg have “gotten past” their friction. Their public reunion this year, including Goldberg’s warm remarks about O’Donnell on-air after seeing her at *The Jellicle Ball*, supports the idea that there is no active feud blocking a one-off appearance. At the same time, O’Donnell has made clear she does not want to return to the daily format or spend her time regularly debating issues on television. So the most likely scenario is a brief anniversary appearance tied to the show’s history, not a fuller comeback. In short, after years of criticizing how things were handled behind the scenes, O’Donnell is still willing to return for the milestone—on her own limited terms.

Q: What really happened off-camera when Rosie O'Donnell accidentally cut off Whoopi Goldberg on live television?

Off-camera, by Rosie O’Donnell’s account, the accidental cut to commercial deepened an already fragile working dynamic between her and Whoopi Goldberg during O’Donnell’s 2014 return to *The View*. O’Donnell said she had tried to prevent problems before rejoining the show, including meeting Goldberg at her home for lunch and telling her she was supportive. She expected the two to share the “Hot Topics” segment in an easy back-and-forth style. Instead, she said the relationship felt tense from the start. The specific on-air mistake came when O’Donnell said she threw to a commercial break while Goldberg was still speaking. O’Donnell said Goldberg was “very upset” by it. O’Donnell’s view is that the moment fed a broader concern that Goldberg may have felt “encroached upon” at the table, even though O’Donnell said that was never her intention. There is no detailed public account from Goldberg describing a separate backstage confrontation tied to that moment. The available reporting relies mainly on O’Donnell’s recent retelling, in which she framed the incident as part of a larger mismatch in on-air chemistry and expectations rather than a single explosive off-camera fight. Since then, both women appear to have moved on. O’Donnell has said they “gotten past it,” calling them “grown-ass women” who support women. Their recent public reunion at *The Jellicle Ball* and Goldberg’s warm comments afterward on *The View* suggest the strain has eased.

3 articles · Updated · TV Insider · Aug 3

Season 30 of The View will include Rosie O'Donnell as a guest, not a co-host, after she confirmed the appearance on The Tangle podcast ahead of the late-September launch.
O'Donnell said the anniversary season is bringing back past hosts, framing her return as part of the show's 30th-season celebration rather than a permanent comeback to daytime TV.
Two earlier stints on the show ended amid conflict — first after a 2007 clash with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, then after a 2014-2015 run marked by tension with Whoopi Goldberg.
O'Donnell said she and Goldberg have since moved past that friction, while also criticizing the show's earlier management as unstable and too male-directed for a program created for women.
Later this month, O'Donnell will also guest host Jimmy Kimmel Live!, adding a late-night appearance before her return to ABC's daytime franchise.