The View is reportedly facing pressure to find a new co-host who supports President-elect Donald Trump. All of its current co-hosts supported Vice President Kamala Harris in the recent presidential election and were out of sync with the majority of voting Americans, but now ABC News executives are reportedly moving to try to close that political gap.
"The View is facing pressure from higher-ups," a source reportedly told the New York Post. “Viewers can expect some major changes, including bringing in new panelists that can bring in a pro-Trump perspective.”
“Everyone on ‘The View’ endorsed Kamala Harris. They lost. They are out of touch with America,” the source reportedly added. “For a show about different perspectives, ‘The View’ doesn’t seem to have any when it comes to Trump. ABC bosses don’t want to alienate the pro-Trump demographic.”
After Harris was soundly defeated by Trump, several of the hosts dressed in black clothing to depict their ideological mourning. The show is currently co-hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, and Alyssa Farah Griffin.
A second source that the outlet spoke to said that executives at ABC were caught “flat-footed” about the amount of support there is for the President-elect in the United States. “We are trying to sort out how we cover the next 4 years when everyone inside ABC News is on one side,” the second source said of the whole network, that includes a slew of other programs.
ABC News Group President Debra O'Connell and ABC News boss Almin Karamehmedovic are apparently trying to extend the show’s interest beyond those who oppose Trump and held tense sit-down meetings with the executive producers of different programs on the network, the outlet reported.
“At the end of the day, these changes aren't about politics. They are about economics,” one source added, indicating that ABC may be losing out on revenue that could be generated by a wider potential audience. “TV networks need to find pro-Trump voices and diversify viewpoints to reflect the various perspectives of Americans.”
However, when asked by the Daily Mail about the report, an ABC News spokesperson said, “This report is not true.”
“The View is an opinion-based show featuring a diverse panel of women with different points of view – the current panel is clearly resonating with audiences given that the series just had its highest rated episode in more than a decade and hit a four-year high in total viewers," the ABC representative added.
