Rosie O'Donnell has fought her last fight at 'The View.' ABC said Friday she won't be back on the show following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday.

O'Donnell asked for, and received, an early exit from her contract. She was due to leave "The View" in mid-June.

"Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at 'The View,'" show creator Barbara Walters said. "I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change."

In a statement, O'Donnell said she was grateful. "It's been an amazing year and I love all three women."

Presumably, that includes Hasselbeck. The two exchanged bitter words on Wednesday over O'Donnell's opposition to the war in Iraq. They've frequently had snippy political exchanges during O'Donnell's year on the daytime chatfest but never as long and loud as that one. (Associated Press)

Nerds unite!

Outcasts are in. Clumsy is cool. Awkward is awesome. Minds are beautiful.

The geeks have inherited prime time.

"Nerds are in this year," declared Dawn Ostroff, the CW's programming chief, and a statistical analysis would seem to bear that out.

Sure, with the 2007-08 schedules the five mainstream broadcast TV networks presented to advertisers, you have your "Sex and the City"-inspired dramas, NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" and ABC's "Cashmere Mafia." You have your immortal detectives in Fox's "New Amsterdam" and CBS's "Moonlight," and your time-travel dramas, NBC's "Journeyman" and Fox's "Sarah Connor Chronicles."

But what the networks seem to be rolling their Dungeons & Dragons dice on this coming season are a bunch of sweet, smart and socially inept people.

Maybe it's all that time the programmers are spending with the computer experts in an attempt to formulate an Internet strategy. Folks such as new CBS Interactive boss Quincy Smith, who showed up on the stage of Carnegie Hall in sneakers and breathlessly told the advertisers how his team was "making rocket ships out of sudoku puzzles here" like it was most sensible thing in the world.

Whatever the reason, check your logarithms, there are going to be exponentially more of them this season.

CBS, for example, is introducing "The Big Bang Theory," about two geniuses. They're not 40-year-old virgins, but probably only because they look to be in their 20s.

NBC this fall will have "Chuck," a light drama about a computer expert with the "Nerd Herd" at Buy More who finds himself thrust into an action hero's role when a government database downloads all its secrets subliminally into his head.

ABC programmer Stephen McPherson says his midseason comedy "Miss/Guided" is based on the notion that every day, at almost every station of life, is like high school with its cliques and social strata.

"This is a woman who goes back to her high school, having lived as the nerdy teen, to be the guidance counselor and really her goal being to not relive that reality," McPherson said. "But as we find, you do relive those things."

But McPherson probably was always one of the popular kids.

The CW is introducing "Aliens in America," a comedy in which a Wisconsin teen who doesn't fit in is paired with an exchange student who, being a Pakistani Muslim, fits in even less.

Heck, NBC plans a midseason comedy based on a British series called "The IT Crowd." "IT" centers on a bunch of computer techies the network describes as "the misunderstood masters of their high-tech domain [who] lack the people skills to befriend anyone but each other."

It's not as though this is entirely new. Maybe the very unnerdlike scientists on the "CSI" series made the world safe for smart people, albeit unusually attractive smart people. That paved the way for CBS's "Numb3rs" about mathematicians who solve crimes and the CW reality show "Beauty and the Geek" (from producer Ashton Kutcher, who also sold ABC on "Miss/Guided"), based on the premise that nerds and model types have more in common than one might guess.

The message must have sunk in because America seems to have embraced the beauty of ABC's "Ugly Betty," who, behind her glasses and braces and decidedly unfashionable attire, is the cheery role model among the supermodels at the fashion magazine where she works.

Maybe, for some reason or another, the nation no longer finds dumb but photogenic people so entertaining in escapist fare. Maybe the networks are making a naked play for the affection of critics and online addicts who can validate their work.

What are the odds, you might wonder.

A nerd would know.

(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)

Washington makes amends

"Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington, making amends for his use of an anti-gay slur, cautions in a public service announcement that "words have power" to hurt or heal.

Washington's filmed message, which began airing Thursday night during reruns of his ABC show, stemmed from a January meeting with officials from the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, GLSEN, and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD.

The actor provoked a furor by using the epithet backstage at the Golden Globe Awards in January while denying he'd used it previously against cast mate T.R. Knight.

Washington's "willingness to do something to address the hurt and harm he may have caused has to be respected," said Eliza Byard, GLSEN deputy executive director.

His public service announcement, produced by ABC, urges tolerance for all.

"Words have power. The power to express love, happiness and joy. They also have the power to heal," Washington says in the message. "When you use words that demean a person because of their sexual orientation, race or gender, you send a message of hate. ... We have the power to heal and change the world by the words we use."

The actor's future with "Grey's Anatomy" is uncertain. A spokesman for Washington has expressed confidence that the actor will return to the show, but ABC said contract negotiations are as yet unresolved.

(Lynn Elber, Associated Press)