Rosie O’Donnell (you remember her right? At one point she was dubbed “The Queen of Nice” – then she took a terrible heal turn and because “the great queen bitch monster”) attempted to resurrect her career on NBC last week with a special called “Rosie Live”.

I think the Variety review of this thing sums it up best: “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.”

Needless to say, word is now coming out that the show did not generate high enough ratings to become a series. Apparently this thing was also supposed to serve as a back-door pilot. 5 million viewers, though, is not even close to enough to support a network show.

Variety show fans need not worry, however, as both FOX and CBS will be attempting to revive the genres next year. FOX is planning a variety show starring the Osbournes, and CBS is hoping that John Mayer will kick start the revival of the format.

No one is sure if either of those projects will get variety shows back on the air, but one thing is certain…Rosie won’t.