The View

The View has been touched upon in the Loose Women thread from time to time and I thought it might be good to start its own thread as this week a new book, "Ladies Who Punch" has been released with a fascinating insight into the show's history.

The show is renowned for its fireworks on air (and sometimes behind the scenes), and the author Ramin Setoodah gained candid interviews with every single co-host except (Whoopi Goldberg and Elizabeth Hasselbeck)

In the book, a story is told about Barbara Walters reprimanding Elizabeth Hasselbeck on air during a segment on the morning after pill. Hasselbeck was furious and walked off set, quitting the show during the commercial break.

That would be a pretty unremarkable anecdote in the grand scheme of the show, except for one fact: the entire meltdown was caught on tape (via the co-hosts' live radio mics), and has never been released... until today:

Hasselbeck does not come off well out of that clip at all.

Not out of that clip when viewed in isolation, but the book as a whole suggests Walters was difficult to say the least and this is an example of things reaching boiling point.

Behar comes across best.

You know someone is difficult when they’re forced off their own show.

Reportedly they pushed Barbra Walters out because she was starting to show signs of dementia. The supermarket tabloids and some other sites say it’s at an advanced stage.

Well it was clear Barbara was tough to deal with even on air. Very often she was shady and bitchy towards other co-hosts, especially those who made her angry, like Star Jones.

This article is about the whole Rosie/Trump drama but it also reveals how the whole thing impacted Rosie's relationship with Barbara and a huge fight they had in front of the whole team. It's a fascinating read.

Star Jones quitting was the first indication it was quite a nasty setup backstage. Star later alleged that someone on the production had leaked she was getting fired, which prompted her early announcement.
Another badly handled situation made worse by egos.

I don't know much about this show but after looking up video of some of the 'infamous moments' it's suprising how much is still available to watch, I would have thought they'd be taken down under the guise of copyright.

I think the more conservative panelists like Jenny and Elisabeth did get picked on more by Barbara, Whoopi and to a lesser extent Joy, it's interesting that Meghan in comparison hasn't had the same sort of drama.

It has always been a huge contradiction of a show. The public fall-outs lead to high ratings and are therefore encouraged, but on the other hand they go to great lengths to insist they all get along really.

It isn't as bad these days - since Barbara left it has been integrated into ABC News, whereas it formerly came under Entertainment.



Although Joy's patience with Meghan is wearing very thin, and the other week reference was made to arguments backstage. Also Meghan muttered "I miss Whoopi hosting" during a segment recently when Joy argued with her over an issue.

None of these "revelations" are a big surprise at all. The "streets" have been talking for ages about the behind the scenes drama.

One thing I can credit The View for is having a more diverse panel on a regular basis which you can't say for Loose Women which only has Saira, Brenda and very occasionally Rebecca.