NEW YORK | “My name is Meredith Vieira, and welcome to ‘The View,'” said Rosie O’Donnell, introducing herself — as if that were necessary — on the ABC women’s chat show Tuesday.

Filling the moderator slot vacated in June by Vieira (who went to NBC’s “Today” show), O’Donnell was greeted by a rousing standing ovation from the studio audience. And she coyly suggested that her longtime crush, Tom Cruise, had sent the huge flower arrangement on the floor beside her.

The show began its 10th season with O’Donnell joining the returning Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters. Another change was a cozy, blue-and-orange arena-like set with a glass-top version of the famous drop-leaf table the ladies sit around for their “Hot Topics” segment.

Other things were very familiar. There was talk of their children peeing on the floor. Of taking nude baths with their kids — or, in Hasselbeck’s case, in a swim suit. Words like “vomit” and “booby” were heard. Candid women stuff.

Also mentioned: the retirement of tennis great Andre Agassi and the death of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin.

“How long have we been on the air? Four minutes?” said Walters after the show’s more-hopped-up-than-usual initial burst. She asked O’Donnell, “How do you feel?”

“Really excited to be here, and kind of ecstatic,” O’Donnell gushed.

The day’s guest was Jessica Simpson, complete with micro-mini-dress and a croaky speaking voice from a bruised vocal cord — that somehow had no impact on her song performance.

It was just the first of presumably many hours ahead for O’Donnell on “The View.” But she made a good start after several years of mishaps (including her lawsuit-plagued magazine, Rosie, and her noisy coming-out as a lesbian) that damaged the “Queen of Nice” image she had earned during six hit seasons as host of her own talk show.