A day after the White House suggested that The View should be “pulled off air” because its ratings “hit an all-time low” due to “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” host Joy Behar got MAGA tongues wagging when she accidentally revealed that the daytime talk show was approaching its summer break.
“Before we go on hiatus, we only have one more show after this,” the 82-year-old comedian declared at the top of Thursday’s broadcast before looking off-camera and asking executive producer Brian Teta: “I’m allowed to say that, right?”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, meanwhile, jokingly exclaimed that it’s “too late now” as Teta noted: “It doesn’t really matter.”
Unfazed, Behar said she was “optimistic” that the “tide is turning” among Donald Trump’s base when it comes to the ongoing saga over the Jeffrey Epstein case, noting that MAGA influencers continue to demand a full release of the files related to the convicted sex offender.
“I mean, the ultimate irony would be that Rupert Murdoch will take him down. Fox News, who created the monster, will take him down,” she added, referencing the president’s lawsuit against Murdoch over the Wall Street Journal reporting that Trump sent Epstein a “bawdy” birthday letter.
As for The View taking a hiatus after Friday’s show, that has likely always been in the plans – and follows the schedule the program has had in place for years. Additionally, a source with knowledge noted that it is the show’s regularly scheduled summer hiatus.
After taking a weeklong break around the July 4th holiday, which the show returned from earlier this month, The View typically airs for several more weeks before wrapping up the season in late July or early August. It then kicks off its new season sometime in September, a standard practice in the broadcast television industry.
At the end of Thursday’s broadcast, host Whoopi Goldberg told viewers that the program would return Friday and then for a “brand new season” in September. She added that ABC would be airing “encore” presentations of The View for the rest of the regularly scheduled summer hiatus.
Of course, with Behar – who was explicitly targeted by the White House Wednesday as an “irrelevant loser” amid their calls for The View to be canceled – suggesting she wasn’t “allowed” to say the show was going on hiatus, it got several prominent MAGA influencers excited about the prospect the show was done for good.
“JUST IN: Joy Behar accidentally admitted The View only has ‘one more show left’ before ‘hiatus.’ Is The View FINALLY being cancelled??! PLEASE tell me this is true,” right-wing podcaster Nick Sortor tweeted while sharing a clip of her comments.
“JUST IN: The View is TAKING A BREAK. This is their second-to-last show, for now, Joy Behar says,” conservative provocateur Eric Daugherty reacted. “MAKE IT PERMANENT! First Stephen Colbert, now cancel The View.”
Other pro-Trump figures, such as notorious anti-trans account Libs of TikTok, got in on the action – expressing hope that the break would be “forever” because Behar had said the “quiet part out loud” amid the Trump administration’s threat. Meanwhile, conservative outlets like The Daily Caller shared video clips of Behar’s remarks, accompanied by siren emojis.
The Independent has reached out to ABC News for comment.
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Meanwhile, the Trump administration calling for ABC to pull The View off the air comes just days after CBS announced it was canceling Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, which itself follows the network’s parent company Paramount paying Trump $16 million to settle a “meritless” lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
While Paramount has said that the Colbert cancellation was a “purely financial decision” due to the dwindling ad revenues for late-night television and the show’s expensive production costs, CBS staffers aren’t buying that rationale. “Many of us think this was part and parcel of the Trump shakedown settlement,” one network staffer told The Independent.
Trump and administration officials have also added fuel to speculation that Colbert’s cancellation was an additional concession in the settlement, which had already sparked accusations of bribery (including from Colbert himself) since Paramount seeks the administration’s approval to close an $8 billion merger with Skydance.
With the president gloating that Colbert “got fired” and claiming he struck a secret side deal with Skydance for an additional $20 million in pro-Trump advertising, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr – who is responsible for approving the merger – didn’t directly answer Fox News on Thursday when asked if Trump had anything to do with Colbert’s cancellation.
At the same time, Carr also suggested that The View could be a program he’d take a close look at amid the White House’s push for it to be taken off the air.
“Look, it’s entirely possible that there’s issues over there,” he said. “Stepping back, this broader dynamic [that] once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there are a lot of consequences. I think the consequences of that aren’t quite finished.”
Carr’s suggestion about going after the talk show comes months after the FCC opened a probe into ABC and its parent company Disney – which paid Trump $16 million last year to settle a defamation suit – over their diversity policies, claiming they may have violated FCC regulations.
It was also reported this past spring that Disney CEO Bob Iger asked The View’s hosts to tone down their anti-Trump rhetoric and refrain from discussing political topics.
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