"The Rosie O'Donnell Show" Was The Queerest Show Of The '90s
The Jerry Springer Show, Maury!, or The Jenny Jones Show in the mid-'90s. Episodes featuring paternity tests, infidelity, and dysfunctional families tossing chairs at each other were a common staple of afternoon TV.
And then came Rosie. The Rosie O'Donnell Show premiered on June 10th, 1996 and was an immediate hit. Instead of interviewing jealous lovers hurling expletives at each other, Rosie's show featured celebrity interviews, musical numbers, and segments highlighting children and charitable organizations.
Despite being a wholesome TV-G rated alternative to its trashy contemporaries, The Rosie O'Donnell Show had an undeniable queer aesthetic and was hugely popular with LGBTQIA+ audiences.
One could argue that Rosie's show was the queerest television program of the '90s (even though nobody on the show was publicly out of the closet).
