I am – Hercules!!
While “Saturday Night Live’s” four fall primetime specials proved mammoth ratings successes, NBC’s bid to capitalize on that variety-show momentum with Wednesday’s completely horrible “Rose Live” special, a backdoor pilot, has proven a bust. Preliminary ratings indicate it tied with “Pushing Daisies” as Wednesday’s least-watched primetime show on the four major networks, and even headliner Rosie O’Donnell is now blogging that it will not go forward as a series. “there will b no more,” she typed in her Prince-like manner, noting the special’s ratings are “not enough 4 a pick up.” Critics, reviewing the show subsequent to its live airing, were generally appalled. TV Guide said:

… If the TV variety format weren't already dead, the ghastly ego trip of NBC's Thanksgiving-eve turkey Rosie Live would surely have killed it. …

The New York Times said:

… Lame jokes are part of the holiday variety genre, along with campy production numbers featuring sexy dancers and cute little children. Celebrity score-settling, on the other hand, belongs to the self-obsessed blogging Facebook generation. Ms. O'Donnell, who frequently takes out her frustrations in a video diary on her Web site, would have been better served leaving herself behind and sticking to the classics.

The Los Angeles Times said:

… disappointment does not even begin to describe it. For weeks now NBC has seduced and tantalized with the promise of a cross between Carol Burnett and “Sonny and Cher.” And this is what we get? Rosie in a glitter top having Baldwin speak into her cleavage and making jokes about her weight? Someone get a hold of Tim Conaway, stat.…

Variety said:

… If Rosie O’Donnell and company were consciously determined to strangle the rebirth of variety shows in the crib, they couldn’t have done a better job of it than this pre-holiday turkey. …

The Hollywood Reporter said:

… There's nothing like a good holiday variety show and this was nothing like one …

Fox is expected to try reviving the variety-show format next year with a series hosted by Ozzy Osbourne and family. CBS is developing a variety hour around a more contemporary rock star, John Mayer.

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