Rosie O’Donnell returns to TV next Wednesday, hosting a variety show, “Rosie Live,” at 8pm on NBC. It was last November when O’Donnell was in talks with MSNBC to host a program, which ended up being “over B4 it began.”

The New York Post’s Adam Buckman reports that O’Donnell discussed the near-deal in a telephone news conference yesterday:

We had a deal and it was about to be announced and NBC changed their mind. It turned out to be a blessing, I think, because I don’t know that arguing about politics is really the best use of my talent. And I also think that Rachel Maddow is unbelievably wonderful.

With Hurricane Ike poised to be next week’s big news story, (it’s currently a dangerous Category 4 storm) the NYPost’s Adam Buckman has thoughts on the coverage of Hurricane Gustav.

“…while a correspondent on Fox News Channels was reporting that no levees had been breached by rising waters, a piece of text just below him on the screen was reporting urgently that a levee had failed…On MSNBC, a correspondent who was driving with a video camera through an area hit by the storm kept saying he didn’t see much damage other than fallen trees. But the video he was capturing showed fallen billboards and other smashed signage all over the place.”