Rosie O'Donnell reveals channel wouldn't air planned Epstein reveal

Rosie O'Donnell says ABC prevented her from featuring Jeffrey Epstein survivors during her recent guest-hosting stint on Jimmy Kimmel Live, a segment she says she ultimately filmed independently and released on her own social media instead. 

Speaking on The Jann Arden Podcast, O'Donnell recalled her original plan for her final night hosting the show in August. 

"My idea for the last night [hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!] was to do the Epstein reveal and they said that they were certain that could not happen. 

So I said I would do it myself and just put it out on [my own social media]… there were eight women. We met and I told them about my history and why it means so much to me and the human race and why this is a vital importance. I thanked them for trusting me. We shot it in a few hours, two hours we shot the whole thing."

O'Donnell guest-hosted four episodes of the ABC late-night show during the week of August 17, and posted the survivors' video to Instagram on September 3, exactly one year after a group of Epstein survivors spoke outside the U.S. Capitol demanding the release of the government's full files on his crimes. 

In the video, O'Donnell and the eight women, all dressed in white, sang Helen Reddy's I Am Woman together. 

She told the group in the clip, "I know it's been very hard for you and with very little support," adding, "And I'm sorry that our country is so f---ed up that this is what you have to live through, because you are all heroes. And you're going to change how the world deals with child sex abuse." 

In her caption, she wrote that she'd reached out to the survivors after Attorney General Todd Blanche "implied that he did not believe men accused of sex abuse would be charged" following the Justice Department's review of the Epstein files.

O'Donnell did not say why ABC blocked her segment, though the network has faced escalating tension with the Trump administration's FCC in recent months. 

ABC sued the FCC last month, alleging the commission was mounting an "extraordinary assault" on its free-speech rights by threatening to pull broadcast licenses from its owned-and-operated stations, a suit the FCC has since asked a federal court to dismiss. 

Earlier this month, Kimmel separately pulled a planned on-air interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, instead releasing it directly to YouTube, where it drew 5 million views. 

Neither ABC nor Jimmy Kimmel Live! has responded publicly to O'Donnell's claims.