The special also included performances by Rosie's Broadway Kids and guest appearances by Kathy Griffin, Conan O'Brien, Jane Krakowski, Harry Connick, Jr., Clay Aiken, Rachael Ray and Alec Baldwin.
(Cody's husband, Hunter Foster, was in the original cast of Urinetown and was on the writing staff for Rosie Live.)
The Los Angeles Times critic Mary McNamara wrote, "For those of us who are, and remain, Rosie fans, who think The View will never quite recover from her departure, who think her desire to resurrect the variety show was, and is, a great idea, disappointment does not even begin to describe it.
"[4] TV Guide critic Matt Roush panned the show as "dead on arrival,"[5] while Variety wrote "If Rosie O'Donnell and company were consciously determined to strangle the rebirth of variety shows in the crib, they couldn't have done a better job of it than this pre-holiday turkey.
"[6] The program finished in third place in its time slot, ahead of ABC and The CW but behind Fox and CBS.