The Cast Of The View: Every Co-Host On The Talk Show

Summary

• The View, created by Barbara Walters, features diverse co-hosts discussing “Hot Topics” and interviewing guests.
• Journalists, comedians, and lawyers have all been co-hosts on the show, with Whoopi Goldberg as the current moderator.
• The show has seen 19 co-hosts over its 27 seasons, each bringing their unique backgrounds and political ideologies.

Since its premiere in August 1997, The View has had a massive number of co-hosts, all of whom joined and left for different reasons. Created by celebrated journalist Barbara Walters, The View is a talk show in which a panel of co-hosts, all of whom are women, comment on and discuss a wide range of topics such as politics, entertainment, and general social trends. Women from different backgrounds, fields, and political ideologies have served as co-hosts throughout the show’s run as the goal of The View is to encourage friendly yet productive discussion among a diverse group.

Journalists, lawyers, political strategists, comedians, actresses, and models have all served as co-hosts on The View. After ranking No.1 in daytime talk programs, The View is currently in its 27th season, with Whoopi Goldberg serving as the moderator and Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Fara Griffin, and Ana Navarro as co-hosts. However, while those five women may be the current cast of The View, 19 others have served as co-hosts at some point, and they have all given reasons for why they both joined and left the show.

24 Meredith Vieira (1997-2006)

Host Of 25 Words or Less

Meredith Vieira was one of the original co-hosts of The View and its first moderator. Vieira started her career as a news announcer on the radio in 1975 before she moved on to become an investigative reporter in 1979. By 1982, she earned national recognition while working for CBS and worked for 60 Minutes from 1989 to 1991. Soon, she decided she didn’t want to be a reporter anymore and needed to reinvent herself for a new career (via Pittsburgh Post Gazette​​​​​​) which led to The View.

“Once I realized I was a reporter who didn’t want to report because it required a tremendous amount of travel, nobody was too interested in having me work for them. I had to reinvent myself.”

At the same time that she was on The View, she also started hosting the daytime version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in 2002. She was best known for introducing the Hot Topics until she left in 2006 to become the new host of Today after Katie Couric left. Before The View, she was a correspondent for the show, Turning Point.

23 Star Jones (1997-2006)

Host Of Divorce Court

Before rising to fame as one of the original co-hosts on The View in 1997, Star Jones began her career as a prosecutor and the senior assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York (via Entertainment Weekly). She graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 1986 and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1987. By 1991, she moved on from that job to start her television career on Court TV and then got a court show called Jones & Jury in 1994.

Jones was part of The View for nine seasons, and while she was popular at first, she soon turned many fans against her when she had gastric bypass surgery but lies and said her weight loss was dieting and exercise (via Oprah.com). She also began to promote products for suppliers, which ABC claimed was alienating viewers and they chose not to renew her contract (via PEOPLE). Jones left The View in 2006 thanks to her contract expiring.

22 Debbie Matenopoulos (1997-1999)

Former Co-Host Of Home & Family

When Debbie Matenopoulos became a co-host on The View in 1997, she was the youngest woman on the show at 22 years old, and was meant to appeal to a young demographic. Matenopoulos was not known for anything before The View as she was offered the job fresh out of college. She met Barbara Walters while working for MTV and was invited to try out for the show. Unfortunately, Matenopoulos was let go from The View in 1999.

Saturday Night Live had a few sketches that parodied The View, and they were always unflattering of Matenopoulos. However, she ended up appearing on the show as a guest, where she played herself. When she left The View, she joined the TV Guide Channel as an on-air host. She went on to work for E! in several roles, including covering the Golden Globes and hosting a pop culture series called The Daily 10. She has since returned as a guest host several times on The View.

21 Joy Behar (1997-2013 & 2015-Present)

Current Host Of The View

Joy Behar has been prominently featured on The View since its inception in 1997, as she has appeared in every season except in seasons 17 and 18 because she was let go from the show in 2013 for undisclosed reasons. However, even then, she appeared as a guest host during both of those seasons. While she announced that she felt it was time to go, she later revealed she was forced out of her position. Behar was rehired in 2015 and has been a co-host on The View since then.

Before joining The View, Behar appeared in various sitcoms and sketch shows like The New Show and Baby Boom. She also has several other shows to her name. In 2007, she created her own CNN HLN talk show called The Joy Behar Show, which she worked on at the same time as The View. In 2012, she hosted Joy Behar: Say Anything and in 2015, she had a late-night talk show called Late Night Joy that lasted for only five episodes. At 81, she is the oldest host on The View.

20 Barbara Walters (1997-2014)

Creator Of The View

In many ways, Barbara Walters is the most important woman to co-host The View, as she was not only one of the original panelists but also the show’s creator. Before The View, Walters’ previous accomplishments as a world-renowned journalist include hosting Today, 20/20, and ABC Evening News. She was considered one of the greatest interviewers in journalism history and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989. Even after that, she remained a journalist until she retired in 2015.

Walters served as a co-host of The View until her retirement in 2014. That means she was on the show for 25 years, while also executive producing the daytime talk show. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Talk Show in 2003 and Best Talk Show Host in 2009. Walters returned as a guest co-host after her retirement in 2014 and 2015. Walters passed away in 2022 at the age of 93.

19 Lisa Ling (1999-2002)

Current Contributor To CBS News

When Lisa Ling was selected to be Debbie Matenopoulous’s replacement on The View in 1999, she was hired for the same reasons that Matenopoulous was: to appeal to as young of a demographic as possible. She was 26 years old when she started her tenure on The View. Ling was another unknown at the time as she previously worked as a reporter on Channel One News, leaving college at USC without graduating to take the job.

She also previously worked as one of the four hosts of Scratch, a nationally syndicated teen magazine show based in Sacramento, California. While there are conflicting reasons as to why Ling left The View, she eventually left after just over three years and returned to a career as an international journalist. After the View, she worked as a host on shows like National Geographic Ultimate Explorer, Planet in Peril, and This is Life. She joined CBS News Sunday Morning as a contributor in 2023.

18 Elisabeth Hasselbeck (2003-2013)

Former Host Of Fox & Friends

Before being cast on The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck was best known for being a contestant on Survivor in 2001, which she lost when she finished up in fourth place. She also married NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck in 2002 and then ended up joining The View one year later, in 2003, when she replaced Lisa Ling. During Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s tenure as a co-host on The View, which she first joined in 2003, Hasselbeck was considered one of the most conservative panelists, often butting heads with Rosie O’Donnell.

Her beliefs were so right-wing that she was allegedly removed from the show because of her politics. In 2013, rumors started that ABC was going to fire her, and while Barbara Walters denied them, ABC let her go a few months later. Hasselbeck joined Fox & Friends after that and revealed years later that she was fired when the show decided to become less political. She admitted that if they had told her how to make it better, she would have (via USA Today).

17 Rosie O’Donnell (2006-2007 & 2014-2015)

Former Host Of The Rosie O’Donnell Show

After Meredith Vieira left The View, comedian Rosie O’Donnell was hired to replace her as moderator in 2006. At the time, O’Donnell was most recognized for hosting her own talk show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show. She was also a movie and TV star, with her biggest roles coming in A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Now and Then, and The Flintstones. For The Rosie O’Donnell Show, she had won 11 Daytime Emmy Awards in 13 nominations.

Rosie O’Donnell left The View twice: the first time was because of an intense argument she had with Hasselbeck about the Iraq War (O’Donnell was against it and Hasselbeck supported it), and the second was because of several reasons. These reasons included “…tensions with Whoopi Goldberg (who had O’Donnell’s old job as moderator) to worsening health and separating from her wife.” (via Entertainment Weekly). She has since returned to her acting career.

16 Whoopi Goldberg (2007-Present)

Moderator Of The View

Considered by many to be the face of The View after Barbara Walters retired, Whoopi Goldberg was hired to become the new moderator of the show. Before becoming a co-host, Goldberg was a critically acclaimed actress and comedian who has had starring roles in several iconic movies like The Color Purple as Celie, Sister Act as Sister Mary Clarence, and The Lion King (1994) as Shenzi. Goldberg is an EGOT winner, with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.

Goldberg has remained the moderator of the show since 2007, when she replaced Rosie O’Donnell. Much like O’Donnell before her, Goldberg has made many controversial comments on the show, including her views on Michael Vick, Roman Polanski, and Mel Gibson. She also openly defended Bill Cosby until she learned the truth about what happened. She was also suspended at one time from The View after she made comments about the Holocaust not being about race (via The Hollywood Reporter).

15 Sherri Shepherd (2007-2014)

Plays Evette In The Sex Lives Of College Girls

Sherri Shepherd initially joined The View as a guest host in 2006 but quickly became a permanent panelist the year after. At that time, Shepherd was best known for her roles in various sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond and The Jamie Foxx Show (as Sheila Yarborough). She appeared in the 2007 big-budget Transformers movie, the same year The View hired her as a permanent co-host. She replaced Star Jones in the lineup and worked as a co-host until 2014.

Shepherd had one controversial moment on the show when she said she didn’t believe in evolution and when Whoopi Goldberg asked if she also thought the world was flat, she said she didn’t know. The reasons for Shepherd’s exit are unclear. Some sources claim she was unhappy with her new contract, while others state she was done hosting the show. Shepherd said, “Seven in the Bible is the number of God’s completion. And I’ve been here seven years and my time at The View is complete” (via Deadline).

14 Jenny McCarthy (2013-2014)

Panelist On The Masked Singer

In 2013, Jenny McCarthy was cast as a new co-host, though her tenure did not last long as she left The View a year afterward. While McCarthy has publicly stated that she left because she wanted to “…cut ties with the show in solidarity with Sherri Shepherd” (via The Wrap), other sources claim she was forced to leave because the producers wanted “…a more diverse table of hosts” (via E! Online). She courted controversy on the show thanks to her outspoken anti-vaccination stance.

Before being a co-host, McCarthy was most recognized for being a model for Playboy magazine. She also had a short movie career, with roles in BASEketball, Scream 3, and John Tucker Must Die. She also had her own sitcom called Jenny from 1997 to 1998. Since leaving The View, McCarthy married former New Kids on the Block singer Donnie Wahlberg and has gone on to become one of the long-running panelists on the reality TV show The Masked Singer.

13 Nicolle Wallace (2014-2015)

Anchor On Deadline: White House

The former White House Communications Director for the George W. Bush presidency was hired as a co-host in 2014 as the producers believed her more conservative political beliefs would be a nice contrast to the more liberal panelists. She started her political career in California and worked for Jeb Bush when he was governor of California before moving on to his brother’s presidential office. She wrote a fictional novel about the White House and then was hired by The View.

Unfortunately, Nicolle Wallace claimed she was forced out of the show and never even told her until the press released the news (via Variety). “I had no plans of quitting. I think I thought that I would learn somewhere other than Variety that I’d been fired,” Wallace said. “It shattered my naivete about television. Listen, it’s all fair. I wasn’t wronged by anybody. But I was surprised to learn in the press about their decision not to bring me back.”

12 Rosie Perez (2014-2015)

Played Renee Montoya In Birds Of Prey

In 2014, critically acclaimed actress Rosie Perez became a co-host on The View. At the time, she was best known for her roles in movies like Do The Right Thing as Tina, White Men Can’t Jump as Gloria Clemente, and Fearless as Carla Rodrigo. Perez was an Oscar-nominated actress, picking up the nomination for Fearless in 1993. She also earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations (In Living Color) before grabbing her fourth for The View.

When she joined The View, it was the year of a huge shakeup. She joined with fellow newcomer Nicolle Wallace and the returning Rosie O’Donnell. Only Whoopi Goldberg remained as a long-running host. She left The View in 2015 after just one season, as she wanted to return to acting. Since that time, she has appeared in the DCU movie, Birds of Prey, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. She earned her fifth Primetime Emmy nomination for the HBO series The Flight Attendant.

11 Raven-Symoné (2015-2016)

Appeared In A Black Lady Sketch Show

Raven-Symoné was cast as a co-host on The View in 2015. She was best known for her role as a child star. She played Olivia Kendall on The Cosby Show and Nicole Lee on Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper. That led to her bigger role as Raven Baxter on That’s So Raven on The Disney Channel when she was 15. She also had several movie roles after that, including Dr. Dolittle 2, The Princess Diaries 2, and College Road Trip. This led to The View in 2015, where she replaced Rosie Perez.

She left the show after only one year because not only did she not enjoy her time as a panelist, but she was also starring in the series, Raven’s Home, a revival of her Disney Channel series, That’s So Raven in which she played Raven Baxter (via Variety). She has since taken on guest roles in several TV shows and also appeared in several reality shows, such as Celebrity Watch Party and The Masked Singer.

10 Michelle Collins (2015-2016)

Former Host Of The Michelle Collins Show

Another one-year co-host, Michelle Collins, was hired as a panelist on the show in 2015. Before The View, Collins was best known as a comedian who appeared on the VH1 web series Best Week Ever for six years. She then earned more fame thanks to her appearances on Chelsea Lately, The Joy Behar Show, The Tyra Banks Show, and The Wendy Williams Show.

She left The View in 2016 because not only did her sense of humor not mix well with the tone of the series, but she also was ultimately uninterested in talking about politics, which is one of The View‘s main subjects. Collins also courted controversy when she criticized nurses on one episode and when she mocked presidential candidate Carly Fiorina in another. The View fired her for reportedly sidetracking the Hot Topics debates with personal stories and other asides and for not talking politics (via Variety).

9 Candace Cameron Bure 2015–2016

Played D.J Tanner In Full House & Fuller House

Best known for playing D.J. Tanner on Full House, Candace Cameron Bure became a co-host on The View in 2015. She replaced Nicolle Wallace as the conservative voice on the show. She only lasted two seasons on the show and was filming Fuller House at the same time. She brought a lot of controversy to The View, often going back and forth with Raven-Symoné, who had recently come out. They clashed on the idea of gay people receiving equal rights in places of business.

She eventually left the show and said she was glad because she disliked the constant discussion about politics, and wanted to talk about lighter topics (via PEOPLE). She also said she wanted to be closer to her family in Los Angeles and her busy acting schedule was causing problems. Since then, she joined the TV company Great American Media, which focuses on mostly family-friendly entertainment, after she felt Hallmark was making too many movies geared toward non-religious households.

8 Paula Faris (2015–2018)

Host Of Podcast, “Journeys Of Faith With Paula Faris”

Before she was cast as a co-host of The View in 2015, Paula Faris worked as a co-anchor on the ABC News shows World News Now and America This Morning. She also gained notice by filling in on Good Morning America before becoming its co-anchor in 2014. That led to her piquing the interest of The View. She was with the show for three seasons, although in her final season, she only appeared one day a week, mostly on the Friday episodes.

In her three seasons on The Voice, the show earned three straight Daytime Emmy Award nominations. She eventually quit her position at The View and Good Morning America to become both a correspondent for ABC News and the host of the podcast Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris. According to Faris, the job change was because of a miscarriage, a car accident, a concussion, and pneumonia, and she felt it was time for a change (via Good Housekeeping).

7 Jedediah Bila (2016–2017)

Host Of The Podcast, Jedediah Bila LIVE

Jedediah Bila was hired as a co-host of The View in 2016 as the producers of the show believed that she had strong enough far-right political beliefs that would nicely contrast with the more left-leaning panelists. Before she was cast, Bila was best known for being the host of the Fox show, Outnumbered, after she gained prominence by appearing on Sean Hannity’s show Hannity. She also appeared on the Fox show, The Five. She left Fox to join ABC and The View.

While ABC thought her Fox days showed she was a strong far-right contributor, they later fired Bila from The View as the producers believed that she was not as conservative as they wanted her to be (she is a Libertarian, not a Republican). “Her unique political position made her someone the audience struggled to connect with. People never really understood her point of view, as it sometimes wavered in a way that just didn’t happen when Elisabeth Hasselbeck was on the show (via Daily Mail).

6 Sara Haines (2016–2018 & 2020–Present)

Current Co-Host Of The View

Before being cast as a co-host in 2016, Sara Haines previously worked as both a correspondent for ABC News and a news anchor for Good Morning America. After serving as a panelist for two years, Haines left the show to co-host the show, Strahan and Sara with co-host Michael Strahan. That changed to GMA3: Strahan, Sara and Keke, with Strahanm, Haines, and Keke Palmer as the third co-host of the show. However, after ABC reformatted that show, Haines returned to The View.

Haines has been on The View since her return and remains a host on the show to this day. She also has taken on other roles outside of The View. Haines hosted the revival of The Chase on ABC. She also appeared as herself when she interviewed the new Captain America, John Walker, in the MCU Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

5 Sunny Hostin (2016-Present)

Current Co-Host Of The View

In 2016, Sunny Hostin signed on to become a co-host of The View, a position that she still currently holds, and has become a fan-favorite on the show because of her insightful opinions. Before she became a panelist, Hostin served as a legal analyst for various news networks like CNN, Fox News, and ABC. She actually started her career on Court TV and began using the name Sunny Hostin there because Nancy Grace couldn’t pronounce her real name (Asunción Cummings) (via Deadline).

She then took on appearances on The O’Reilly Factor, American Morning, and the six-episode documentary series Truth About Murder With Sunny Hostin on Investigation Discovery. In her time on The View, the show has earned six Daytime Emmy Award nominations in eight seasons, although it has yet to win one for the hosts.