Rosie O'Donnell,
who famously clashed with a cohost on The View, is
close to being her own boss again.
The acid-tongued
talk-show host whose dispute with Elizabeth Hasselbeck
hastened her departure from ABC's daytime gabfest is
reportedly in negotiations to host a prime-time talk
show on MSNBC five days a week.
An NBC executive
familiar with the discussions confirmed the two sides
had talked but cautioned that ''we're far from a done
deal.'' The executive spoke on condition of anonymity
because the negotiations were ongoing.
The cable news
channel owned by NBC Universal would not officially
comment on the discussions. A spokesman for O'Donnell could
not be reached for comment.
The reports,
which first surfaced in The New York Times, suggested O'Donnell would take
over the 9 p.m. slot currently occupied by Live
With Dan Abrams. That would put her show in
competition with CNN's Larry King Live and Fox News
Channel's Hannity & Colmes.
Fox News
dominates prime-time ratings for cable news channels,
averaging 1.5 million viewers this year, according to
Nielsen data. MSNBC is a distant third with 505,000,
behind CNN's 755,000.
O'Donnell hosted
her own daytime talk show from 1996 to 2002. She also
produced a Broadway musical and founded a short-lived
namesake magazine before her tempestuous run on The
View. Although she was there for less than a year
before leaving in May, her boisterous, opinionated
style was credited with boosting the show's ratings.
Shortly before
joining the multihost show created by Barbara Walters,
O'Donnell had blogged that ''it will be hard 4 me 2 not b
the boss.'' Now she's set to reclaim center stage as
her own. (AP)