When it comes to getting opinionated on TV, the female co-hosts on The View could easily qualify as experts, even if they’re entirely aware that not everyone else agrees with those opinions. Indeed, its Oscar-winning moderator Whoopi Goldberg is as privy to that fact as anyone, and has no issue with addressing the idea there are people who wish that The View would be canceled and taken off the air.
Not that hosting the morning series is extremely easy and peaceful for all involved — Raven-Symoné had lots of problems with it — but the show has been a staple of ABC’s daytime programming since 1997 (despite being different in many ways), and doesn’t appear to be in danger of exiting the airwaves. Goldberg addressed that issue during an episode in reference to California governor Gavin Newsome’s controversy-courting podcast, first saying that disagreements stem from viewers who make blanketed assumptions about them as hosts.
She began her point like this, which sparked some audible confusion from Joy Behar:
People assume that we believe whatever they believe that we believe.
Once it was clear her point wasn’t so swiftly relayed, Goldberg tried again:
People believe that they know everything I think and believe. They don’t. But one of the ways that you learn what people believe is to hear them talk. One of the things that people would love to see is, people are always saying, ‘You should take The View off television.’ You know why? Because we give you an opportunity. We don’t tell you what to think.
To be clear, Goldberg isn’t saying that The View‘s panel of outspoken personalities is completely absent from delivering opinionated coverage, because this show logically wouldn’t exist if that were the case. It would have been canceled long ago after viewers stopped watching 4-6 women sitting next to each other very quietly and most certainly politely.
Nah, The View‘s biggest fans tune in specifically to see whatever messy thoughts and hot takes Whoopi & Co. have about headline-making news in the entertainment and political spheres. Which is what Goldberg was saying by pointing out that the hosts air their own judgments and assertions out for the world to see, but without telling anyone else that they should have the exact same opinions. She continued:
We say, ‘This is what I think!’ Alyssa will say, ‘This is what I think.’ Joy will say, ‘This is what I think.’ And when we do that, that is how you have the dialogue. It’s not personal, you know? Sometimes somebody will say, ‘That shirt looks a little tight on you, Whoopi,’ but that’s not a bad thing!
Now, the possibility exists that someone could look back over the past 28 years of The View episodes and pull out certain quote examples that counterpoint Goldberg’s point. But those would still fall more under “exceptions” than “the rule.”
The way to keep everyone’s feelings from souring is as easy as not taking topical debates down to the level where it goes beyond the topic itself. As she put it:
But it becomes an awful thing when people become personal about you or your family. See, that’s the difference. We don’t do that here. Other people do it to us, and would like to think that’s what we’re doing to them. But we’re not.
It’d be interesting to hear what past hosts would have to say about whether that approach carried on behind the scenes, considering how steadfast someone like Candace Cameron-Bure has been about not returning despite being asked multiple times. Or how Meghan McCain can’t seem to talk about the show without calling out former colleagues for backstage issues, and has said there’s no chance in Hell she would return.
Fans can watch The View every morning on ABC, with the most recent week’s worth of episodes available to stream with a Hulu subscription.