After some alums of The View have aired their critiques of ABC’s daytime talk show, Sunny Hostin is giving her take.
“I’m always surprised when people speak negatively about our show, if I’m being honest,” she told Us Weekly recently. “You are part of a sisterhood. It’s really special.”
Hostin, a full-tune View cohost since 2016, added: “We are all close, regardless of our personal views. We leave all of that at the table. So I’m always surprised when someone says, ‘I don’t like that person.’ Because it’s never personal.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Ana Navarro, and Sara Haines (ABC)
For Hostin, the hosts should feel a baseline of respect on the show. “Barbara Walters made sure I knew that when I joined,” she said. “Whoopi [Goldberg] says that all the time. I’ve said that to Alyssa [Farah Griffin]. I’m going to argue you down to the ground, and then we’re going to go out for martinis, and it’s going to be OK.”
One of the most vocal critics of the show is Meghan McCain, who cohosted the show from 2017 to 2021. McCain wrote in an April 2023 Daily Mail column that she was “treated horribly” on the show. And she claimed in her audio memoir, Bad Republican, that the show is a “toxic work environment,” per Variety.
McCain spoke out about the show again in a December 2023 episode of the podcast Your Welcome [sic]. “I just didn’t know that when I signed to do this show that I have to deal with these crazy old people just yelling about me all of the time,” she said on the podcast, per Entertainment Weekly.
Rosie O’Donnell, a cohost from 2006 to 2007 and 2014 to 2015, also didn’t have a good experience on the show. “It’s not the best use of my talent to get in a show where I have to argue and defend basic principles of humanity and kindness,” she said in an April 2023 episode of the podcast Now What? With Brooke Shields, per EW. “It was not something I’d ever do again.”