Football games are not this loud.
Clapping, stomping, shouting, singing, dancing - the 180 souls gathered to watch "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" have been gathering momentum and increasing their decibel level to points nearing hysteria. Stand-up comedian and warm-up wizard Joey Kola has been working the crowd with uncommon zeal, and now, sweating to the beat of John McDaniel and his band, the McDLTs, Kola grabs an older woman by the hand and leads her in a boogie in the aisle.Audience members down the last of their packaged chocolate cakes, left on every chair beforehand, and eagerly clap as Kola and his dancing partner shake and bake, each pointing an index finger heavenward. Then, appearing from behind a mostly-blue speckled curtain, a hand and a part of an arm appear, waving at the crowd.
Everyone know it's O'Donnell, and the clapping becomes less rhythmic, more continuous.
Ten-nine-eight . . .
This is it. The show is about to begin. The crowd stirs. Kola urges silence.
Five-four-three. . . . At one, ice skater Kristi Yamiguchi stands and introduces today's guests: David Hasselhoff, Jackee, Huey Lewis & the News and Susan Dey.
Then, bam!, the band starts playing, and Kola starts waving his arm above his head, a human whirlybird signaling the audience to maintain its clapping and its noise level.
Rosie pops out from behind the curtain. She acknowledges the crowd with a point of a finger, then dances/struts to her mark. The crowd goes wild.
America is having a love affair with Rosie.
"Discovered" on "Star Search," O'Donnell has a Partridge and Petrie pedigree. She was television-bred, and she's not ashamed of it. So despite such film successes as "A League of Their Own," "Sleepless in Seattle" and "The Flintstones," it's no accident that when she wanted something different, something simpler, O'Donnell would return to her television roots.
"I always loved Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore," says the Long Island-born 34-year-old. "When I had my son, and I wanted to have a life that would be more stable for him, where he would be able to sleep in his own bed every night, I thought that this would keep me home. And also I could bring something back to America's kids that I had as a child, that I so looked forward to and inspired me to become an entertainer."
O'Donnell's comparisons are valid, but the pace and the popularity of her show easily exceed Douglas' or Griffin's.
"I guess it's true that the personality drives this show more than those did," she acknowledges. "But when you think of Dinah Shore, you didn't think of her show, you thought of her."
How about Dinah Shore with a bit of salsa? That's what America has fallen in love with. Not a format. Not daytime TV.
It's Rosie.
The numbers seem to send mixed signals. In syndication, in which shows are sold to television stations on an individual basis, Oprah Winfrey is clearly the ratings leader among daytime shows. No dispute.
Among total households, "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" also trails three other long-running shows, including "Regis & Kathie Lee," "The Montel Williams Show" and "The Jenny Jones Show." But, as Warner Bros. executive vice president Scott Carlin explains, those shows have been on as long as 10 years, whereas O'Donnell has been on only five months.
"The affiliates are ecstatic with the show's performance," he said. "In some markets, ratings have increased 20 (percent), 50 (percent) and 100 percent."
In the important women-only demographic, O'Donnell is a solid No. 2 to Winfrey. O'Donnell's "real"-ness comes up again and again in conversations with people who have seen the show. It's a certain "everywoman" quality about her with which people seem to connect.
"I think I look more like the viewer more than anyone else on TV," says O'Donnell. "When I was doing stand-up, people used to come to me and say, `You remind me of my best friend from high school, Eileen Kennedy.' Or, `You remind me of Janie Shaunessey.' All these Irish people. There's definitely always been a relatability factor."
She is a woman sure of who she is and what she wants out of life, quick to protect herself and her family and friends, and upfront about issues she cares about, no matter how controversial they are.
She's not above yelling Bob Dole diatribes at a Bill Clinton campaign rally. She's quite vocal about her dislike of O.J. Simpson and Woody Allen. She would never knowingly have an act on her show that exhibited sexist, racist or homophobic attitudes.
She's joined George Clooney, good friend Madonna and others in boycotting Paramount and its show "Hard Copy" because of hidden-camera, ambush-journalism and lack-of-privacy issues. She was especially miffed at "Hard Copy's" pursuit of pictures of Madonna's baby.
But she's also sensitive to how she's perceived by the people who work for her. And to the quality of the show. And to her need for a life away from work.
She's not only the host and star of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," she's also its executive producer. Sometimes the responsibilities can be overwhelming.
"I was crying last week," she says without apology from her office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. "Something went wrong with the show - the audio, some problem that we had - and I just felt very overwhelmed, like sometimes there's so much to do."
With her imprint everywhere, she has every right to be demanding, even if she isn't. But "demanding" in power circles equals rhymes-with-rich if you happen to be a woman.
"I built this show in its entirety, from the band and the band director I wanted, to the set design. I wanted the `Tonight Show' format with the stage on the left like Johnny (Carson) used to have it and the desk the same exact size as Johnny had it and a woman to do the opening announce.
"I had the entire show delivered. It wasn't like someone came up to me and said, `We'd like you to do this show for us.' So if you're in control, if it's your baby, I guess if you're a woman, that's the reputation that comes with it."