Will Rosie's OWN Show Survive 2012?

The Queen of Nice is now the Queen of Low Ratings.

Rosie O’Donnell’s OWN talk show is hardly helping Oprah Winfrey’s new network overcome its ratings woes. “The Rosie Show” quickly dropped 49 percent after its debut in October, and given the network’s overall lousy performance it doesn’t seem to be having a positive impact on the rest of the lineup.

The press appears disinterested in O’Donnell’s fall. Shouldn’t a celebrity with a track record of talk show triumphs – both on her own syndicated program and as part of the successful gab-fest “The View” – be a safe bet for a home like OWN?

Could it have anything to do with O’Donnell’s vitriolic transition from fuzzy talker to 9/11 truther?

Press accounts have focused on Winfrey’s attempts to reboot her fledgling network, and few would count out a media titan like Winfrey at this point. But why isn’t O’Donnell being held accountable? She’s clearly the biggest star on the network not named Oprah, and if O’Donnell started pulling her weight it could have a domino effect on other OWN properties.

Failing shows can always rebound after a slow start. Both “Cheers” and “Seinfeld” didn’t start out as ratings juggernauts. It took time.

But time might not be enough for O’Donnell. Even if the talker keeps her volatile political comments in the green room she may have already done sizable damage to her reputation – and Winfrey’s chances of having her first breakout hit.