The last few years of ABC’s The View have been about as tumultuous as it gets for a daytime talk show, with panelists coming and going with unstable rapidity. One of the biggest kerfuffles came when co-hosts Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd were booted from the show after Season 17, which was McCarthy’s only season. With the current lineup in flux, it would make a certain amount of sense for the show to reach back out to McCarthy, and it appears they have.
Jenny McCarthy and her husband Donnie Wahlberg appeared on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM radio show, and the conversation naturally drifted to The View. Wahlberg mentioned that he knew immediately after she left the show that they would try to track her down again, and although Wahlberg made it seem like she wouldn’t be open about it, McCarthy shared this.
One of the producers called and said would I ever consider it. And I said, “No, thank you.” Because I couldn’t be me. You know, you called it from the start. I couldn’t be myself.
Wahlberg points out that this call was unofficial, which makes it seem like they were just feeling McCarthy out rather than actively seeking to get her back on the show. And considering her apparent disinterest in getting back on board, it was probably a good thing that the producer kept the network’s interest on the down low. There’s a decent chance ABC just wants McCarthy back because she’s a lightning rod of controversy thanks to her views on vaccinations and their connections to autism. But then, she also has a ton of fans in general, so that’s another draw.
Even if McCarthy’s denial wasn’t enough to get The View from hounding her, she also predicted that the show doesn’t have very long left before it’s completely finished.
I think they might have…they might try one more year and then the Titanic might go down.
It’s not the smartest idea to get involved with a host that doesn’t believe in the product, so we’ll be waiting to see if anything more comes of this. You can check out that piece of the conversation in the clip below.
The View filled McCarthy and Shepherd’s vacancies – as well as Barbara Walters’, who left the show at that point – with Nicole Wallace and Rosie Perez, the latter of which has already had her own problems. Rosie O’Donnell, who cohosted for Season 10, returned for Season 18, but then promptly left all over again. Walters did return with former co-host Joy Behar for the 4000th episode a few days ago. I wonder if anybody asked them to stick around for a few more years.
