Rosie O'Donnell gave NBC a real turkey.

The network's attempt to revive the primetime variety show failed to draw an audience Wednesday night, tying for the evening’s lowest-rated program.

A mere 5 million viewers tuned in for the 8 p.m. premiere of “Rosie Live,” with the program earning a 1.2 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. The telecast matched ABC’s recently canceled “Pushing Daisies” as the night's lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.

NBC had high hopes for the special and planned to expand the program into a series should viewers re-embrace the decades-old  variety format. Other networks, too, were watching closely since several are developing variety shows of their own.

“There’s a notion that the climate is right for the genre to make a comeback,” emailed one executive at a rival network. “I guess we now know what not to do, thanks to Rosie.”

Segments included Kathy Griffin impersonating Nancy Grace, Alec Baldwin hitting Conan O'Brian with a pie, O'Donnell singing "City Lights" with Liza Minnelli and Jane Krakowski doing a striptease while showing images of product placement.

Critics were not kind. The NY Times described it as "hokey comedy with an enemies list." TV Guide called it a "ghastly ego trip."

Networks have been chasing variety show programming as a low-cost option to revive the genre. But the idea has been sought by executives due the format’s rock-bottom low cost, cross-promotion possibilities and advertiser-friendly format rather than being a genre that's bursting from the creative community or demanded by viewers. In other words, the neo-variety show is a product designed to solve financial woes rather than an inspired act of programming creativity and therefore had the odds stacked against it drawing large numbers. 

NBC’s variation in particular, starring O’Donnell with appearances by Alannis Morrisette, Ne Yo, Griffin, Rachael Ray, Harry Connick Jr., Clay Aiken and Gloria Estefan seemed pretty niche, skewing heavily female for a show broadcast the eve of a family holiday, and some observers thought the lineup was better suited for daytime than primetime.

Given the holiday week, programming was lower rated last night than average. One special that did perform well was Barbara Walters’ interview with president-elect Barack Obama (11.6 million, 3.0 rating), which nearly matched "CSI: NY" in the 10 p.m. hour and gave ABC its highest non-awards show rating in the time period in more than a year.