Tuned In

MSNBC Offers Too Little Green,* Gets No Rosie

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“everything happens for a reason,” Rosie O’Donnell philosophizes in her all-lowercase r blog, announcing that her potential talk-show deal with MSNBC has fallen through. The reason in this case, reports the LA Times, was money–she wanted network money, they offered basic-cable money. Someone, apparently, neglected to tell her that when you put “MS” in front of “NBC,” it stands for “Mediocre Salary.” (Links via Romenesko.)

* Update: Or possibly not. According to the New York Times’ account, “a principal hurdle had been the length of a potential contract.” Says the NYT, Rosie had wanted to commit, as with The View, to only a year’s contract, giving MSNBC a shorter time to charge higher ad rates, since some of next year’s ads in the timeslot were already sold. Whether the contract was a hurdle or the hurdle, the story doesn’t say, but either way, money in some form was a sticking point. I’d have thought the network would be willing to take a gamble against the big tune-in they’d likely have got–especially if a strike’s still on in the winter–but that all depends on the numbers they were talking. [Thanks p_lukasiak for the link.]