No sooner had we reserved some room in our increasingly spacious DVR boxes (now occupied by season passes for Meerkat Manor, C-Span 3's America's Most Smartest Lobbiest, and not much else) for Rosie O'Donnell's upcoming MSNBC talk show, it turns out network executives have pulled out of the project after O'Donnell blabbed about the deal on her blog and at a Miami book signing. A new poem at Rosie.com explains what happened:

the show that never was

msnbc
one hour
live
following keith olbermann

we were close to a deal almost done i let it slip in miami causing panic on the studio end

well
what can u do

2day there is no deal
poof
my career as a pundit is over
b4 it began

just as well
i figure
everything happens for a reason
bashert - as we say

and on we go

"Bashert," of course, refers not to the Yiddish term meaning "it was meant to be," but rather to O'Donnell's mangling of British expat telejournalist Martin Bashir, whose surname she inexplicably evokes in times of great career disappointment. We have no doubt some other network will scoop up O'Donnell during these times of great need for unscripted schedule-fillers, however, finally allaying the deep sadness that comes with having so much nightmare to give, but no staff of producers and assistants to give it to.

• the show that never was [Rosie.com]

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