Rosie, Day One

Rosie O’Donnell’s debut on “The View” Tuesday sparked a lot of viewer interest, both nationally and locally. The show averaged 4 million viewers nationwide, a 54 percent spike over the same day last year (2.7 million viewers).

Locally, it pulled 489,000 viewers on Ch. 7, up significantly both from its May average (291,000 viewers) – when Star Jones and Meredith Vieira were still on the show – and from this past July (275,000 viewers sans Jones and Vieira).

The show also increased its viewership among women 18-49, its core audience.

Fox’s “House,” meanwhile, got off to a rousing start in its season premiere Tuesday, averaging over 18 million viewers, while TNT’s “The Closer” (Kyra Sedgwick) continued its record-breaking season. It notched 7.6 million viewers for Monday’s season finale – the top rated series finale in basic cable history.

Last, but not least:

* Up-close-and-personal: Ch. 4 will air all its newscasts and local programming in high-definition beginning Sept. 13.

* Russell Crowe, Isabella Rossellini, James Spader and Sela Ward narrate “Discovery Atlas,” airing Sundays (9 p.m.) next month on Discovery Channel.

* Q104’s Ken Dashow introduces Asia tomorrow at The Nokia Theatre.

* Keith Hernandez discussing davening (Hebrew word “praying”) with Gary Cohen? Yep. It happened the other day during a Mets game on SNY.

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“Desperate Housewives” star Marcia Cross (right), who plays anal-retentive widow Bree Van De Kamp, has confirmed that she’s pregnant. She’s due in April – around the time “Housewives” wraps its third season. No word on how they’ll hide Marcia’s “baby bum.”