The View (talk show)

For other uses, see The View (talk show) (disambiguation).

The View
File:The View Title Card.jpg The View title card for season 11
Created by	Barbara Walters Bill Geddie
Starring	Barbara Walters (1997-present) Joy Behar (1997-present) Elisabeth Hasselbeck (2003-present) Whoopi Goldberg (2007-present) Sherri Shepherd (2007-present)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	2,404 (as of November 23, 2007)
Production
Executive producers	Barbara Walters Bill Geddie
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	American Broadcasting Company
Release	August 11, 1997 – Present

The View is an Emmy Award-winning American talk show created by Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie and broadcast on ABC. It features a panel of women as co-hosts: Whoopi Goldberg moderates discussions and is joined by Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Shepherd and Barbara Walters, who also serves as the show's co-executive producer.

The stated goal of The View is to showcase women with a range of perspectives. The show opens each day with "Hot Topics," in which the co-hosts provide their commentary on the day's top headlines in politics and entertainment.

The show is produced and shot at ABC's studio on West 66th Street in New York City. The View airs live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, Monday-Thursday, and is on tape most Fridays. Generally the shows receives about 3 million viewers an episode.

History

File:TheViewOriginal.jpg

The original panel of The View; Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos and Barbara Walters in 1997.

The View premiered 11 August 1997 replacing Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends, dropped due to low ratings. The original set was a leftover set from a cancelled soap opera, The City; ABC didn't introduce a new set for The View until its fifth season.

A New York Times review published ten days after the show premiered, describes what critic Caryn James thought was distinctive about the show:

The idea of women talking to one another on daytime television is not exactly radical. The idea that those women should be smart and accomplished is still odd enough to make The View seem wildly different. It actively defies the bubbleheads-'R'-us approach to women's talk shows....

After a year on the air, a review of the show from Salon.com attempted to summarize what had made the show a "(very guilty) pleasure" for its mostly female audience:

The View has caught on with viewers because it gives expression to feelings more complicated, and real, than its detractors realize. Like the Rat Pack, it's all about freedom in an uptight world. Vieira, Walters, et al., have confessed to a lot of things on the show that women are supposed to feel guilty about: forgetting to vote, being too lazy to exercise, hating skinny models, letting the kids watch too much TV, admiring Hollywood's latest hunk. And, apparently, they don't care what people think. Look, I'm not holding them up as role models. And I'm not saying they're representative of the death of feminism, or the rebirth of feminism, or anything like that. I just like the way they don't give a damn. If the Rat Pack was Everyman's id, The View is Everywoman's. These chicks do it their way, and are very inspirational to all women.

The show premiered with four co-hosts: Meredith Vieira, Star Jones Reynolds, Debbie Matenopoulos, and Barbara Walters. Walters and Joy Behar initially took turns as the fourth co-host, an approach that at least one TV critic considered disconcerting:

The comedian Joy Behar, who appears on the days when Ms. Walters is off, is truly funny but hasn't blended in yet; at times it seems as if a Joan Rivers clone had parachuted in.

Behar has since become a full-time co-host.

The panel expanded to five when Walters joined in. The subsequent opening credits for the show, featuring voice-over from Walters, made the show's premise explicit:

I've always wanted to do a show with women of different generations, backgrounds and views: a working mother; a professional in her 30s; a young woman just starting out; and then somebody who's done almost everything and will say almost anything. And in a perfect world, I'd get to join the group whenever I wanted....

Format

Mostly four women discuss current issues and news items ranging from social and political issues to tabloid headlines and celebrity news. News journalist Barbara Walters has been the permanent host of the show, while three co-hosts support her. Walters, "a co-owner (with ABC) and co-executive producer" of the show, likely has final decisions as to the casting of her co-hosts.

Co-host history

The View has had ten co-hosts in its eleven year run. Barbara Walters and Joy Behar are the only original co-hosts that are still on the program. Lisa Ling and Rosie O'Donnell are the only former co-hosts who were not in the original line-up. Walters appears, on average, three days a week. Sometimes guest co-hosts fill-in to ensure there is always four or five people discussing issues.

  Original Panelist   Replacement; Current co-hosts names are in bold.

Seat	Name	First Show	Last Show
1st (Moderator)	Meredith Vieira	August 11, 1997	June 9, 2006
	Rosie O'Donnell	September 5, 2006	May 23, 2007
	Whoopi Goldberg	September 4, 2007
2nd	Joy Behar	August 12, 1997
3rd	Star Jones	August 11, 1997	June 27, 2006
	Sherri Shepherd	September 10, 2007
4th	Debbie Matenopoulos	August 11, 1997	December 24, 1998
	Lisa Ling	May 3, 1999	December 5, 2002
	Elisabeth Hasselbeck	November 24, 2003
5th	Barbara Walters	August 11, 1997

Seasons 1-8 (1997-2005)

For the first couple of years of its existence, the series remained rather controversy-free save for criticism given towards Debbie Matenopoulos, a panelist who was spoofed mercilessly by the critics, who felt that Matenopoulos did not have the proper news credentials for the show. She was ultimately let go in 1999, when her contract was not renewed. Following Matenopoulos' departure, Lisa Ling was announced as the new co-host beating out Rachel Campos and Lauren Sanchez who competed in an on-air try-out to fill the vacated seat.

Ling departed in 2002 to host National Geographic Explorer. Former Survivor contestant Elisabeth Hasselbeck replaced Ling in 2003 after Hasselbeck, Rachel Campos and Erin Hershey Presley were the finalists in a competition that ended with each of the three getting a week-long on-air tryout.

Season 9 (2005-2006)

The View experienced several host changes through the end of season 9 and the start of season 10.

Vieira's departure

Meredith Vieira announced on April 6 2006 that she was leaving the show to become co-host of NBC's The Today Show, which Barbara Walters co-hosted in the 1960s and 1970s, first with Hugh Downs, then with Frank McGee, and later Jim Hartz, replacing Katie Couric (who had just announced she was leaving Today to anchor the CBS Evening News). On April 28, 2006, an announcement was made at the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards that former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell would be joining the show at the start of the tenth season in September 2006.

Jones Reynolds' departure

The announcement about O'Donnell fueled speculation that Jones Reynolds would also leave the show. One reason for this speculation was a dispute regarding O'Donnell's public remarks about Jones Reynolds' dramatic weight loss. (Jones Reynolds had publicly stated that the weight loss was a result of diet and exercise, but O'Donnell suggested that she was not being truthful, and that it was a result of gastric bypass surgery). In a 2007 issue of Glamour magazine, Jones Reynolds revealed that she had, in fact, undergone gastric bypass surgery in August 2003, leading to her dramatic weight loss over the next four years.

On June 27, 2006, Jones Reynolds announced her departure from the show on the air. Reynolds said she would remain on the show through July, but the next day Walters announced that Reynolds would no longer be a part of The View except for previously recorded segments. Both ABC and Jones Reynolds have publicly stated that the decision to not renew her contract was not related to the hiring of O'Donnell. In an interview with People magazine, Reynolds claimed the decision to leave was not hers, and that in April, producers told her that her contract would not be renewed. According to an interview with the Associated Press, Walters stated that ABC executives had apparently decided not to renew Jones Reynolds' contract as early as the previous fall due to diminished approval for the co-host which was showing up in their market research. Walters said, "We tried to talk them [network executives] out of it, and we tried to give Star time to redeem herself in the eyes of the audience, and the research just kept getting worse." Walters has publicly commented about feeling "betrayed" by Jones Reynolds, since Jones Reynolds unexpectedly made the announcement two days ahead of schedule. "I love Star and I was trying to do everything I possibly could — up until this morning, when I was betrayed — to protect her."

Following Jones Reynolds' departure, the show used guest co-hosts to fill her spot. Various media outlets reported that television personality Gayle King and actress Sheryl Lee Ralph were both interested in the job. Jones Reynolds eventually landed a job with AOL as an "AOL Coach" and subsequently negotiated a deal with Court TV to host her own one-hour talk show, Star Jones which premiered on August 20, 2007. This show lasted less than six months before being canceled, due to a combination of low ratings and the channel's rebranding to truTV and a shift away from a focus on courtroom trial coverage and discussion programming.

Season 10 (2006-2007)

On September 5, 2006, Rosie O'Donnell made her debut as the new co-host, and moderator of the show. With the new changes in place, September 2006 brought in record ratings. A total of 3.1 million viewers watched that month, the highest total viewership the program has ever seen. The talk show also surged 34% in the advertiser-friendly "women aged 18-49" demographic, and sustained its early season success with its best ever November sweeps period. Entertainment Weekly magazine in March 2007 cited The View as doing for daytime TV what the Daily Show has done for nighttime TV in that it offers viewers a show that deals in genuine opinion and not mere fluff.

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The View Season 10 title card.

During season 10, O'Donnell led the daytime women's chatfest as the moderator steering the opening "Hot Topics" portion of the show. Unlike previous seasons, however, politics and taboo subjects were readily explored with the two comics (O'Donnell and Joy Behar) quickly finding humor in the news of the day and often giving strong opinions against President George W. Bush's policies including the war in Iraq which was losing support amongst Americans. As a counterpoint to O'Donnell's more liberal views, conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck would often support the Bush Administration's views and the two would get into an adversarial give-and-take at least until both had made their points.

Always outspoken, O'Donnell sometimes crossed a line with certain audiences when the comedian would talk politics or veer into religious discussions, at one time stating "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam". Often clips from the show would be recirculated by other media outlets, often surprising The View co-hosts. In reaction, O'Donnell lamented that news outlets were focusing on less important subjects like her comments instead of more important issues.

Controversies

The View achieved higher ratings with Rosie O'Donnell's outspoken and candid nature moving the show into a newsworthy spectrum from traditional daytime talk fare. She was sometimes criticized for not acting as much as a moderator for discussion as much as a spokesperson for various, often liberal, viewpoints. As a big-name talent she drew criticism for her opinions while keeping the show's "buzz factor" up. The downside of being spontaneous and putting her views in front of a national audience was that such remarks were often the subject of controversy and criticism, especially by conservative commentators and other media outlets, who recirculated comments and clips from the show. It is unclear if O'Donnell's viewpoints were calculated to attract viewers but the show has continued to address more substantive subjects even after her departure.

Main article: Rosie O'Donnell § Controversies

O'Donnell departure

On April 25 2007, O'Donnell announced she would be leaving the show as a co-host when her contract expired because the network could not come to terms on the length of a new contract. She did, however, say that she planned to return as an occasional correspondent.

Hasselbeck/O'Donnell argument

O'Donnell has been outspoken about her condemnation of many Bush administration policies and the war in Iraq. She consistently brought up recent military deaths and news about the war, and has criticized the US media for its lack of coverage of the war and the Bush administration's actions and policies. On 17 May 2007 O'Donnell rhetorically asked, "655,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Who are the terrorists?" asking, "if you were in Iraq and another country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?" Conservative commentators responded by claiming O'Donnell paralleled American soldiers to terrorists. On 23 May 2007 a heated discussion ensued because of what O'Donnell perceived as a lack of willingness of co-host Hasselbeck to back-up O'Donnell's right as an American to disagree with the U.S. invading Iraq and the resulting occupation. O'Donnell said the right-wing media would portray her as a bully attacking "innocent pure Christian Elisabeth" whenever they disagreed and she believed Republican pundits were mischaracterising her statements. The debate became more heated when co-hosts Behar and guest host Shepherd made joking attempts to end the discussion including trying to change the topic or cut to a commercial break.

On the next show date, May 24, comedian Kathy Griffin sat in for O'Donnell who took the day off to celebrate her partner Kelli's birthday. On May 25, ABC announced that O'Donnell had asked to be let out of her contract nearly a month before its expiration and was given permission to leave immediately. According to ABC News, O'Donnell said that she knew her time on the show was over when she saw the exchange reported in the news media with the split screen effect showing her and Hasselbeck on either side. O'Donnell and ABC agreed to cut short her contract agreement on May 25, 2007 as a result of this issue. ABC News reported that her arguments with Hasselbeck brought the show its best ratings ever.

Two days later, in a press release, O'Donnell said she bore no ill will towards Hasselbeck and said that she "loves all three women". In her blog Jahero, O'Donnell stated she had not talked to Hasselbeck, and that she was in shock and "stunned" that Hasselbeck had brought up Donald Trump, with whom O'Donnell had publicly feuded. While the number of viewers was higher than the year before O'Donnell joined the show, in the month following her departure, viewership was down by an average of 232,000.

Replacement moderator

A variety of different names were floated around as replacements for O'Donnell during the tenth season's final months. Among those reportedly considered to replace O'Donnell were Whoopi Goldberg, Gayle King, Sherri Shepherd, Kathy Griffin, Roseanne Barr and Mario Cantone. On August 1, Barbara Walters ended speculation announcing that Goldberg would be replacing O'Donnell as moderator for the eleventh season. When asked by Joy Behar if she liked engaging in celebrity feuds, Goldberg responded by saying she has no plans to feud with any of her co-hosts. However, an article in the L.A. Times "Show Tracker" column on July 26, 2007, had the following quote: "She is exactly what the show needs,” said Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman. “She is a beloved brand name; she is outspoken; she has done this before, she is a person of color; she is as far left as Rosie; she lives in New York; and she can kick Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s ass."

Prior to the official announcement that Goldberg would be joining the program, various media outlets reported that both Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd would be added to the panel. In Touch magazine reported that a deal for Shepherd to join The View fell through after negotiations went awry over a salary dispute. Along with Shepherd, The View was reportedly also in talks with radio personality Jacque Reid and comedian Kathy Griffin to join the show. ABC offered the job to Kathy Griffin when negotiations with Shepherd fell through. Griffin didn't accept the offer because the salary was too low. The View ended up picking Sherri Shepherd to be the new co-host.

Season 11 (2007-2008)

File:TheViewCurrent.jpg

The View's panel (2007–present) includes Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters.

The View returned for its eleventh season on September 4, 2007, with celebrity guest Danny DeVito. Returning from season 10 were Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Barbara Walters. The season premiere also marked Whoopi Goldberg's first official day as co-host and moderator of the program. Preliminary ratings show that 3.4 million people watched the debut episode, roughly 1 million less than season 10's debut with O'Donnell, but still ranking as the show's second highest season premiere.

Walters announced on September 10 that Sherri Shepherd was joining the panel as the fifth permanent member. This marks the first time since Meredith Vieira left in 2006 that the show features a complete panel of five co-hosts (although Hasselbeck began an extended maternity leave in November). It also marks the first time in the show's history that two African-American co-hosts are part of the same panel. With the addition of Goldberg and Shepherd, The View has garnered its highest ratings ever. After two weeks, The View under Goldberg is averaging 3.5 million total viewers, a 7% increase from 3.3 million under O'Donnell last season.

In addition to two new co-hosts, the show's set underwent a transformation from blue to orange, Behar returned to the 2nd position seat (next to the moderator), and the format of full-hour Hot Topics was introduced allowing more in-depth conversations and debates. Other changes and additions included a week of episodes from Las Vegas (the show's first time in the location), an episode with limited commercial breaks (sponsored by T-Mobile), and various segments pertaining to changes in Whoopi's life (quitting smoking, losing weight, and rehearsing for her role in Xanadu (musical) to name a few).

On 16 October 2007, it was announced that Elisabeth Hasselbeck would begin her maternity leave as of October 23,2007. Hasselbeck returned to the show when the show returned from Christmas hiatus on January 7, 2008. While Hasselbeck was on maternity leave her seat was filled by a rotating guest cast. An article in the Boston Globe a week later stated: "When Elisabeth Hasselbeck bade farewell to her cohosts on "The View" Tuesday, it was all hugs, well-wishes, and baby-product endorsements. But as Hasselbeck begins her 2 1/2-month maternity leave, the political landscape is shifting, as well. America's most dangerous conservative - or so some liberals see it - is leaving TV for a while." It went on to say: "Hasselbeck, the apple-cheeked blonde with the football-player husband, consistently draws a brand of hatred from the left that Hillary Clinton generates from the right; "screechmonger" is one of the more printable slurs hurled at her from the blogosphere. Barry Manilow has called her "offensive" and Alicia Silverstone once refused to touch her - that an America's sweetheart-type would generate such vitriol says a lot about the state of debate in a polarized country.".

The View from Las Vegas

On the week of June 23, 2008 (June 23-27), The View spent the entire week doing the show live from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas with guest including Bette Midler, Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, David Cook, David Archuleta, Wayne Brady, Penn and Teller, Jessica Simpson, Danny Gans, Rita Rudner, and Cirque du Soleil The show was shot live outside of Ceasar's Palace with heavy promotion of Midler's The Showgirl Must Go On which is performed in the Coliseum, the hotel's theater.

Michael Vick discussion

The new season opened with its share of controversy when Goldberg commented on the role football player Michael Vick played in the recent dog-fighting scandal. Of the Atlanta Falcons quarterback she said, "He's from the South, from the Deep South.... This is part of his cultural upbringing.... For a lot of people, dogs are sport... Instead of just saying (Vick) is a beast and he's a monster, this is a kid who comes from a culture where this is not questioned."

Behar immediately took issue with Goldberg's comments and asked, "What part of the country is this? How about dog torturing and dog murdering?"

Goldberg's comments also were denounced by Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, who noted that dogfighting is outlawed in all 50 states and is considered a felony in all but two: Idaho and Wyoming.

Goldberg defended herself the following day by explaining she was attempting to explain Vick's actions from a cultural view but was in no way condoning or excusing his actions.

Marcel Marceau's death conversation

On the 25 September 2007 show, Goldberg criticized two ABC news anchors for the manner in which they reported the death of French mime Marcel Marceau on World News Now, the network's overnight newscast. Describing Marceau as "the greatest mime of his time" and a "huge influence" on how she performs, Goldberg said she was moved to speak out on Taina Hernandez and Ryan Owens presentation of Marceau's death as "disrespectful" and "poorly handled by the two anchors". "If you are a news person and you don't understand the person you are talking about, don't make fun of them," Goldberg added.

Clinton baby plan discussion

On October 3 2007, Hasselbeck and Goldberg got into a discussion about Hillary Clinton's new $5000 baby entitlement which became heated due to Hasselbeck stating that it would lead to fewer abortions due to women wanting to keep the money. Goldberg warned Hasselbeck to "back off a little" and asked her if she "had ever been in that position to make that decision". Goldberg also stated,

Most people do not want to have abortions. Most women do not have them with some sort of party going on. It is the hardest decision that a woman ever- wait- ever has to make. So, when you talk about it, a little bit of reverence to the women out there who have had to make this horrible decision. And one of the reasons that, that we have had to make this decision is because so many women were found bleeding, dead, with hangers in their bodies because they were doing it themselves. The idea of this was to make it safe and clean. That was the reason the law came into effect. That was why it was done.

Almost a year later, Hasselbeck sits next to co-host Sherri Shepherd who shared in July 2008 that she had several abortions, as a form of birth control, in her promiscuous youth.

Since 1999, the show's hosts have received Emmy nominations every year, although they have not won.

Parodies

Since the show's premiere, The View has been the subject of numerous parodies. One such was a recurring skit on Saturday Night Live in the late 1990s, portraying Jones-Reynolds, Vieira, Behar, and Walters as jealous older women and Matenopoulos as a simple-minded bimbo, who was consistently being punished for making stupid comments. Barbara Walters was one of Cheri Oteri's best known impersonations during her tenure on Saturday Night Live. In 2005, MADtv parodied the show in a sketch, exaggerating the women's speech as simultaneous bickering and featuring Michael McDonald as a farmer treating the women as hens, tossing chicken-feed on the ground and producing eggs from the women's seats. It was also parodied on the animated show Family Guy, in which Stewie is quarantined in a glass ball such that Brian gets to watch whatever he wants. Brian takes advantage of his freedom by selecting the one show that Stewie can't stand: The View. The women are clucking like chickens and Star Jones lays an egg. They were also parodied in The Simpsons with the show being called "Afternoon Yak" where the members of Afternoon Yak resemble the hosts of The View. The studio audience has also been compared to seals, as there are many breaks for applause during the show. In Zoey 101, it's parodied as "Point of View" in the episode "Anger Management." On Season 5 of The L Word, Alice, played by Leisha Hailey, was invited to replace a former lesbian co-host on the show "The Look."

Reaction

Accusations of bias

The View has been accused of a variety of forms of bias over the years.

While diverse in terms of host age and backgrounds, the show has been criticised by many conservatives for what is seen as a liberal bias and a lack of diversity in political views. However, the show has had several conservative guest hosts (e.g., Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, Kathie Lee Gifford) and regular co-host Hasselbeck is an outspoken pro-life conservative. In the 9 April 2007, issue of People magazine, Hasselbeck stated that she and O'Donnell get along well off-stage, that they e-mail frequently, and that she credits O'Donnell with inspiring her to speak out more on the program.

On 21 January 2003, Jennifer O'Neill was a guest on the show promoting her "Silent No More" campaign with the goal of reducing teenage abortions. Having had an abortion herself, O'Neill spoke about her personal experience. Conservatives believed she was handled harshly by hosts and ridiculed by actress Katey Sagal in the following segment.

Joy Behar has said that conservatives are "so annoying", but that she would likewise take on liberals if they were in power. Nevertheless, conservatives contend that Hasselbeck is the only conservative on the show, as opposed to the liberal presence of Behar, Walters, and Goldberg. Shepherd has professed to be "not savvy in the political arena" [4] --98.220.39.44 (talk) 17:51, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

There also have been accusations of religious and racial bias levied against the program. Walters has been accused of tolerating anti-Catholicism including Behar, who was raised Catholic, regularly poking fun at subjects including sainthood and communion. Barry Manilow, refused to appear on the show for a political reason. He was scheduled to be interviewed by conservative Hasselbeck instead of the more liberal Whoopi, Joy or Barbara, the article further stated, "a source close to "The View" said "we canceled him," because producers refused to comply with Manilow's "completely disrespectful" demands."

International broadcasts

• In Australia, The View is shown on the W. Channel on cable television, airing around twelve hours after the original United States airing. The episodes are also repeated in blocks over the weekend.
• In Canada, The View is available on cable through ABC affiliates and on the CTV broadcast network in simulcast with ABC.
• In New Zealand, The View is screened on the Vibe channel on Sky satellite television. Episodes are delayed by one week.
• In the Philippines, the show is simulcasted live on Velvet.
• In South Africa, The View is broadcasted on SABC3.