Sounds like there will be no more Ms. Nice Gals on “The View” next season.
In the wake of a shakeup that saw both Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy depart the ABC daytime yakfest, former panelist Joy Behar said the show is aiming for a panelist mix that will be more eager to tear into each other, rather than this season’s kinder, gentler version.
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Citing “spies,” Behar told the Daily Beast that the show is looking for a political conservative to fill one of the vacant spots. (Elisabeth Hasselbeck, long the resident right-winger on “The View,” left last year, moving on to a spot on Fox News Channel.)
“They’re going for fireworks rather than camaraderie,” Behar offered.
Behar, who left the show last year, went on to opine that the show had grown “goody-goody.” Or, as she also put it, “Fluffy.”
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“[W]e had chemistry that everybody seemed to like for a good 10 years. And when Star [Jones] and Meredith [Vieira] left, they changed the show to be a little more political, with Rosie [O’Donnell] and Elisabeth [Hasselbeck],” Behar said. “By the time I left last summer it became goody-goody again. Fluffy. Now they’re going back to confrontation. That’s what it looks like to me.”
If that’s the plan, signing on a conservative panelist would make sense. Last week, the series confirmed that Rosie O’Donnell — who sparked debate with her outspoken liberal views while on the show — would return to “The View” for its next season. The decision to bring her back aboard has already prompted confrontation from some conservative corners, with Hasselbeck and Donald Trump both criticizing the move.
“Talk about not securing the border,” Hasselbeck snipped on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” while Trump predicted via Twitter that O’Donnell’s return would be a “disaster.”