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Oprah makes way for Rosie O'Donnell

Published:Saturday | September 17, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Oprah Winfrey (left) and Rosie O'Donnell talk to the media outside Harpo Studios in Chicago before unveiling a new sign to welcome 'The Rosie Show' on Thursday. The Rosie Show premieres Monday, October 10 on the Oprah Winfrey Network and will be filmed at the former home of The Oprah Winfrey Show. - AP

CHICAGO (AP):

Oprah has made way for Rosie. Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell unveiled a sign Thursday in front of Chicago's Harpo Studios. It reads: 'Harpo Studios. The Rosie Show. Former Home of The Oprah Winfrey Show.'

 O'Donnell has started work in the same studio where Winfrey taped her talk show until it ended in May after 25 years.

"Top billing for you, girl," Winfrey told O'Donnell.

O'Donnell's one-hour talk show debuts next month on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

"Not a lot of people get a second shot and this is a second shot that is even bigger than the first shot," said O'Donnell, who won Emmy awards for her talk show of six years that ended in May 2002.

Winfrey said there was much discussion about the future of Harpo Studios, on Chicago's west side, when her talk show ended.

"It's wondering that it gets to rise up and be passed up in the name of entertainment," Winfrey said.

O'Donnell says she's bought a Chicago home, and Winfrey says she still keeps an office at Harpo Studios. Winfrey said the pair "collaborate on everything".

Does that mean Winfrey will be the first guest when O'Donnell's show debuts?

"I mean really, please," Winfrey said. "We're more creative than that."