If there were ever a talk show formula that guaranteed controversy, it's ABC's The View.
Thanks to the genius of media veteran Barbara Walters, women of different ages, cultural
backgrounds, and politics came together in 1997 to discuss various issues.
Here are some of The View's most explosive episodes.
Joy Behar and Meghan McCain have gone up against each other many times politically on The View.
So it wasn't surprising when, after Behar decided to criticize President Trump over
the issue of pollution in 2018, before getting into the topic of the day, which was the death
of George H.W. Bush, McCain wasn't having it.
Behar started by saying that if she were a one-issue voter, she'd focus on "pollution
and the greenhouse effect," but McCain interrupted her thought.
"Could we focus on the president, please?
I just, I don't want to talk about Trump."
As Behar tried to steer the conversation back, McCain kept jumping in.
"Excuse me a second please, I wanted to talk about…"
"I'm not interested in your one-issue voter when our President just passed.
I don't care what you're interested in, I'm talking!
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg quickly cut to commercial break as they continued to spat.
Of course, Behar and McCain have always had a seemingly contentious on-air relationship,
particularly during this June 2019 episode.
"Don't feel bad for me, b----, I'm paid to do this!"
However, they both insisted on-air that the fact that McCain used the "b-word" was blown
out of proportion.
"Joy and I call each other b---- all the time and text each other b----, I know you're comfortable
with it, she knows I'm comfortable with it, I also enjoy fighting with you."
McCain went on to ask that everyone stop acting so, quote, "precious" about their relationship.
"It's almost 2020, and women can debate on TV in a spirited way without it being personal,
and I know this is a big shock, but we get along backstage."
So, it probably wasn't a great idea to have conservative Judge Jeanine Pirro on with Whoopi
Goldberg, but hey, that's why they call it The View, right?
During her 2018 appearance, the gloves came off around the issue of immigration.
At one point, Pirro indicated that Goldberg had, quote, "Trump derangement syndrome,"
to which Goldberg responded:
"Did you just point to me?"
"Yes!"
"Listen, I don't have Trump derangement, let me tell you what I have."
Goldberg then condemned Trump's divisive way of speaking.
"I'm tired of people starting a conversation with 'Mexicans are liars and rapists.'"
She claimed the President's behavior was worse than any other politician in her lifetime.
"I'm 62 years old.
There have been a lot of people in office that I didn't agree with.
But I have never, ever seen anything like this."
Goldberg then attempted to change the subject, but Pirro wasn't about to back down, and the
duo continued to point fingers at each other
"Whoopi, you know what's horrible?
When people who shouldn't be here end up murdering the children of Americans."
And that's where Goldberg ended the segment.
"You know what's horrible?
When the president of the United States whips up people to beat the hell out of people.
Say goodbye."
It even escalated after the show.
Pirro addressed the incident on Fox News, claiming that she "was cursed at" backstage
and that she and her team were "thrown out of the building" after the segment.
She reiterated her statements to TMZ, as well, alleging they treated her like she was, quote,
"less than human."
Goldberg later made her own statement on The View, saying that Pirro's post-show assessment
left out some "key points."
"She then called everybody at the table a name I cannot repeat on TV, and said it in
front of the audience."
Goldberg claimed Pirro then approached her backstage, and while the two did get into
an argument, Pirro was not chased out of the studio.
When Whoopi Goldberg gets going, watch out.
She had some words for Kate Gosselin in a 2009 episode, resulting in a half-lecture,
half tear-down over the reality star's judgment as a mother.
During her appearance, Gosselin explained why she had recently broken her custody agreement
and showed up at ex-husband Jon Gosselin's house unexpectedly; basically, she was upset
that a babysitter of whom she never approved, who was later rumored to have dated her ex,
was watching their children.
After hearing this, Goldberg took her to task over showing up at her ex's house when it
wasn't her appointed time with the kids.
"You have your specific time, and their specific time, and you're not supposed to walk on...And
I'm sorry, that's the law."
Whoopi then doubled down on her point to make sure Gosselin was hearing her.
"You could have gone to jail, do you realize that?"
"I've learned my lesson, and I learned it was not a good thing."
Co-host Sherri Shepherd quickly defended Gosselin, saying that divorce is difficult because,
quote, "you know what the law says in your head," but another part of you might not feel
right about it.
However, this just made Goldberg more entrenched in her point of view, exclaiming that Gosselin,
quote, "simply cannot do that."
"His attitude could be the same on something that you feel is perfectly normal."
Conservative author and pundit Ann Coulter is always good for a dose of on-air controversy,
don't you think?
Never to be underestimated, both Coulter and the ladies of The View brought their A-game
when she appeared on the show in 2012 to promote her book, Mugged.
"Racemongering has been very bad for America.
Liberals use it to promote causes that have nothing to do with blacks, and in fact harm
blacks."
She then claimed that the O.J. Simpson verdict shut down the, quote, "white guilt bank."
"And that ended up being the best thing that ever happened."
Of course, chaos immediately ensued, and Goldberg took control.
"If you're going to talk about race, at least know what you're talking about."
Coulter then challenged Goldberg to explain why she was wrong.
"Tell me how much you know about being black."
At another point in the discussion, Coulter claimed that segregationists were, in her
words, "all liberal Democrats," to which Goldberg said that, quote, "everyone was a segregationist."
Goldberg was then bleeped for swearing, as the audience applauded.
Walters later challenged Coulter on whether the point of her books is really just to stir
up controversy, to which Coulter answered,
"The reason I write these books is because I try to correct things that people believe
that are just false."
Lots of people were shocked when Kelly Osbourne made a faux pas on camera that, when taken
at face value, seemed to offend the Latino community.
In a discussion about Donald Trump's stance on immigration in 2015, Osbourne quipped,
"If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet,
Donald Trump?"
After a pregnant pause, Puerto Rican-American co-host Rosie Perez took issue with Osbourne.
"Latinos are not the only people doing that."
"I didn't mean it like that.
C'mon, no, I would never mean it like that."
But the damage was done, and Osbourne soon took heat on social media and in the press
for the gaffe.
She later apologized on Facebook with a statement, saying, in part,
"I want to start by saying I ALWAYS take responsibility for my actions.
In this particular case I will take responsibility for my poor choice of words but I will not
apologize for being a racist as I am NOT.
I whole-hearted f---ed up today…It is my hope that this situation will open up a conversation
about immigration and the Latin community as a whole.
By the way I clean my own f---ing toilets."
Meanwhile, Perez defended Osbourne at the end of the show, as well as tweeted her support
by saying:
"My apologies [Kelly Osbourne], I took your point wrong…My bad.
[Your] heart is so pure and righteous.
I adore you."
After an Oregon bakery was fined for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple
in 2013, the women of The View were all over it.
Raven Symone, who identifies as lesbian herself, and Candace Cameron Bure, known for her conservative
views, immediately butted heads.
"The Oregon law bars businesses from discriminating against sexual orientation, race, disability,
age, or religion."
Symone explained that the situation is the same as when religious people used to use
their beliefs to prevent African-Americans from doing certain things.
Bure countered, saying she didn't feel it was discrimination.
"This is about freedom of association, it's about constitutional rights, it's about First
Amendment rights.
We do have the right to still choose who we associate with."
Clearly Symoné wasn't too pleased to hear Bure's take on the subject.
"I refuse to associate myself with you right now.
Is that okay?"
For her part, Bure later told HuffPost Live,
"I was pleased with, you know, how I handled myself."
The Fuller House star clarified, however, that she didn't mean to imply she herself
would make the same decision as the Oregon bakery, saying,
"I'll always fight for religious freedoms, but I think people misunderstand that when
you do fight for religious freedom, in that particular case, it doesn't mean that I personally
would always respond the way the people in the case are responding."
The View's "secret sauce" is obviously the differences between the women that allow for
interesting conversations.
One huge example of that was the 2006 exchange between TV vet Barbara Walters and her conservative
co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
In a discussion about the morning-after pill being made available over-the-counter, Hasselbeck
strongly expressed her opinion that it was a, quote, "slippery slope to just eliminating
life."
Walters then reached her hand out and said,
"Elizabeth, Calm down dear."
"I can't, this makes me so upset, Barbara."
"I know but, we all, everyone has strong opinions."
Walters later added that they need to be able to discuss these topics and listen to one
another without going "crazy."
As the show cut to commercial, Hasselbeck tore up her cue cards.
Offstage, in a hot mic moment, Hasselbeck then ranted to Joy Behar.
"I'm not going back out there, I'm not going back out there."
Come into my office here."
"No, I'm not going back out there.
You know what, I can take it in the meeting, I'm not taking it out there on air."
Behar continued to try and calm her down, but Hasselbeck was fuming.
"She just reprimanded me and she knew exactly what she was doing.
Goodbye.
I'm off.
Write about that in the New York f---ing Post!"
Producers eventually convinced her to continue, and she and Walters hugged it out.
The backstage audio was later released by the author of Ladies Who Punch! to Variety
in 2019.
When it comes to speaking her mind, comedian and former daytime talk show host Rosie O'Donnell
never disappoints, which made her a perfect match for The View.
As expected, she didn't hold back, especially in 2006, when she did an impromptu impression
of Donald Trump on the show.
Trump, who owned the Miss USA pageant at the time, had just held a press conference about
whether he would allow the current Miss USA to retain her crown after she was caught partying.
"With his hair looping going 'everyone deserves a second chance, and I'm gonna give her a
second chance.'"
The audience roared while O'Donnell continued with a rant.
"He's the moral authority.
Left the first wife, had an affair.
Left the second wife, had an affair.
Had kids both times, but he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America."
Needless to say, the moment didn't sit well with Trump and sparked a years-long feud between
the two.
O'Donnell told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live in 2017 that Trump pretty much went crazy
on her.
When The View co-host Joy Behar suggested that being on Trump's bad side was somewhat
of an honor, O'Donnell agreed, but added that being targeted by him for over a decade, quote,
"makes the PTSD fairly intense."
Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck were two of The View's most controversial hosts,
so when they went head-to-head back in 2007, let's just say, sparks flew.
On a previous episode, O'Donnell made a comment about the Iraq War that lead to a backlash
from conservative media.
Then on a subsequent show, O'Donnell accused Hasselbeck of not defending her against the
criticism.
"You said nothing, and that's cowardly."
"No, no, no, do not call me a coward."
O'Donnell also explained why she was hesitant to even get into a conversation with Hasselbeck
at all.
"Here's how it gets spun in the media.
Rosie, Big, fat, lesbian, loud Rosie attacks innocent, pure, Christian Elisabeth."
It became so tense that instead of going to commercial, the producers put them on a split
screen and let them go at each other on-air.
Finally, Behar begged the director to make it all stop.
"Who is directing this show?
Let's go to commercial.
Let's go to commercial."
Sadly, the two haven't exactly made up since then.
In an interesting twist of events, the 2019 book Ladies Who Punch! quoted O'Donnell as
saying she actually had a "little bit of a crush" on Hasselbeck that was, quote, "in
no way sexualized."
After Hasselbeck called the comment "disturbing" during a guest appearance on The View, O'Donnell
took to Twitter to explain herself once again, saying:
"Hey [Elizabeth], my crush on u was not sexual, sorry u got scared, surely u recall [before]
it all went wrong, I never objectified u, I did find u fantastic, broadway shows, my
pool, we were friends once, god love ya kid, I always did."
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