No. 6: Rosie O'Donnell
Politics
Appeal points (out of 100): 29
Awareness level: 92%
Total points: 26.7
Public describes her as: Rude, Aggressive, Kooky/Wacky
The funny-lady-turned-liberal-activist isn't well-liked on a broad basis--her appeal rating is one of the lowest in the whole survey, a tad below Pat Buchanan and just ahead of Al Sharpton. But thanks to a successful talk-show run and a series of public spats with Donald Trump, everyone knows who Rosie is. And that's most of the battle when it comes to power and influence.
It appears O'Donnell is that high on the list solely due to her notoriety, particularly her epic May 23 meltdown on the view. (link includes video)
After all, Rosie doesn't have a TV perch anymore and when she does pontificate she's doing a very bad bell hooks impression on her eponymous rosie.com blog. What's more, ratings at "The View" are on an upward trend post-Rosie, Variety reported on Sunday:
After a shaky start in the ratings, Whoopi is now beating Rosie.
On her first day as moderator of "The View," Whoopi Goldberg drew 3.4 million viewers, 1 million fewer than Rosie O'Donnell did on her first day in 2006, and the show looked to be in for a season of tough comparisons.
But after one week, the show under Whoopi was in a dead heat with the Rosie-led show of last year.
The second week into the season, "The View" was up 16% over last year, an unexpected turn for ABC daytime prexy Brian Frons, who predicted before the season began that Whoopi wouldn't top Rosie.
After two weeks, "The View" under Goldberg is averaging 3.5 million total viewers, a 7% increase from 3.3 million under O'Donnell last season.
