And then came Rosie. The Rosie O’Donnell Show premiered on June 10, 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). Not so with Rosie’s studio audience. Hers was comprised was people from all ages and walks of life. As the camera panned across her crowd, it wasn’t unusual to see an 8-year-old kid from Brooklyn sitting next to a Midwestern grandmother. Children loved Rosie! Conservative church-goers loved Rosie! Queer urbanites loved Rosie! Her audience represented a true slice of ’90s American culture, which included LGBTQIA+ individuals.
