Watching The View

Despite a slower start than the Rosie O’Donnell-led season, this season of The View, which features new hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd has now topped last season in the ratings.

According to Variety:

The second week into the season, “The View” was up 16% over last year, an unexpected turn for ABC daytime prexy Brian Frons, who predicted before the season began that Whoopi wouldn’t top Rosie.

After two weeks, “The View” under Goldberg is averaging 3.5 million total viewers, a 7% increase from 3.3 million under O’Donnell last season.

Also, in the demographic of women 18-49, the show delivered 972,000 during the week of September 10th, a 4% increase over last year.

I think that a better judge of the true ratings will be an average of the first three months of the season. The addition of Sherri Shepherd in the second week likely brought a lot of viewers who wanted to “try-out” the new cast. Whether the viewers will stick around remains to be seen.

The View, ratings, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell, Sherri Shepherd

They started The View talking about the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is in New York City. He will speak at Columbia University. Elisabeth Hasselbeck said that Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Association was going to speak there, but the school canceled his appearance. Last year he spoke and was not well-received and people stormed the stage. That organization seeks to prevent illegal immigration.

Whoopi Goldberg said that best way to know what Ahmadinejad really stands for is to let him speak and “hear it from the horse’s mouth.” Elisabeth said that she would rather say it is hearing it “from the ass’s mouth.” Whoopi said, “I am pretty sure I don’t like the guy,” but that he should be allowed to speak. She said that he has denied the undeniable, in the holocaust, and he should face questions from the students about it.

Sherri Shepherd pointed out that he is a pathological liar. Elisabeth said that it is just allows him to spread his hate and they should not roll out the red carpet for people who have caused so many deaths. Elisabeth said that Iran is still giving weapons to Iraq and that she prefers to judge a man by his actions, rather than his words.

Columbia University does not have an ROTC program. Joy said that is a recruitment organization and that is different than a free speech issue. Elisabeth said that it denies students the opportunity to participate in the program. Whoopi said that through the years, there have been a lot of bad people who have spoken in the United States. Elisabeth said that if Hitler were alive he should speak to Ahmadinejad to convince him that the Holocaust did exist.
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According to her website, View host Sherri Shepherd will be returning to the Emmy Award winning television show 30 Rock to reprise her role as Angie Jordan. She is expected to appear in the October 4th and 11th episodes. Co-host Joy Behar also appeared on 30 Rock last season.

Sherri Shepherd, 30 Rock, Joy Behar, Angie Jordan

Now airing on E! is the True Hollywood Story of The View. Overall I was not impressed with the episode, as it did not really reveal anything new. What I usually like about the THS is that they get exclusive interviews with former colleagues or uncover some secret that was not widely known. This episode did not have anything like that.

The show gives a brief history of the careers of all of the hosts, both past and present. I did enjoy seeing old clips from when Meredith Vieira first started out in local television in Rhode Island. It also explained the beginnings of the show and Barbara Walters’ search for the initial hosts.

What I found most perplexing about this show was the people who they chose to interview for the show. They only had one host, Debbie Matenopoulos, and her interview clip did not even talk about the controversy surrounding her departure from The View or anything remotely scandalous. They had lots of old clips from the various hosts, but nothing done for this show.

The majority of the people interviewed had no actual connection with the show. There was an entertainment reporter, the editor of Gawker, and some man whose tagline said “Professor of Television.” (Who knew there was such a thing). I found the professor to be rather rude overall, like calling Lisa Ling “smarty-pants.”

If they were going to do a show where people regurgitated information that was widely spread in the media during the time it occurred (i.e. Star Jones leaving, the fight between Rosie and Elisabeth), they should have just had me on the show. Their “experts” certainly did not say anything that I could not have said.

They did have one strange former hairstylist on the show, but he did not really offer anything other than to say that he saw Debbie Matanopolous crying. Shocking!

Did any of you see the episode? Were you as underwhelmed as I was?

The View, E! THS, True Hollywood Story

Whoopi Goldberg appeared on the Star Jones show today on Court TV. In her introduction, Star called Whoopi, “one of my favorite people in the whole world” and said that they have been friends for a long time.

Overall, I thought this was a really good interview. I had not seen a whole episode of Star Jones yet, and I actually, surprisingly, found her to be enjoyable. They touched on a lot of topics, including The View, Rosie O’Donnell’s book, and various “hot topics” going on in the country. Below is a fairly comprehensive recap of what they discussed.

About The View:
Whoopi said that people keep telling her that she needs to work on her face during the interview segments. She said that there are wonderful actors and actresses coming on and she “couldn’t care less” about what they are promoting. She would rather talk about cleaning products.

Star gave her a tip and said to turn her head a little to the left and the right and think “I am so happy to be here right now” and then you will look interested.

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Whoopi Goldberg will be a guest on Star Jones talk show today. The show airs on Court TV at 3:00 p.m. eastern time.

Whoopi Goldberg joins Star to discuss her new job and how she looks at the world. It’s the first time two “Viewers” discuss hot topics outside of “The View.”

the view, star jones, whoopi goldberg, the view

They started The View talking about a website where they show what celebrities would look like if they were “regular” people, without trainers, stylists, or plastic surgery. Whoopi Goldberg that now that they have talked about it, they will probably end up on the site themselves.

Barbara Walters said she would get some work done, but would stop short of the scary look with popped out eyes like some of her friends who have gotten face-lifts. Sherri Shepherd said that she wants her double chin gone and some of her belly. She added that she does not have a booty, so she wants to get a fake one. Whoopi suggested that she just get it sucked out from somewhere else and put in her booty.

The next topic was whether female divorcees are getting less sex after their divorce. Sherri, who is going through a separation and divorce, said that she is going to be celibate until she is married. She said that she had pre-marital sex and that is “where we went wrong.”

Whoopi said that she respects that, especially because Sherri has a young child at home. Whoopi was celibate for seven years when her daughter was growing up. Joy said that she was dating Steve for a year before she introduced him to her young daughter. Barbara said that she never had any men stay over when she had her daughter at home.

Barbara asked whether women need sex as much as men do. Whoopi said in “the olden days” she would have sex just to have sex. She said if she is considering committing to someone, she will take her time before having sex. She off-handedly mentioned that she has “a better half,” and Barbara tried to grill her on who it is.
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Although Elisabeth Hasselbeck mentioned her cover article in Pregnancy magazine yesterday on The View, she did not discuss the details of what was in the article, which is on newsstands now. Here is some of what she told the magazine.

On her final argument with Rosie O’Donnell:

I almost had the same feeling in me as when I had a championship [softball] game and I was up to bat and the pressure was on. I’m very lucky that tears didn’t come out … Unfortunately when a woman cries, it’s never seen as a sign of strength and never seen in a positive light.

On being a conservative:

Being a conservative mother isn’t the challenge. Being a conservative in New York City on television is the challenge.

On being a mom:

And as a mom, now I want to make sure that the decisions I’m making and the votes that I’m casting are going to create long-term benefits for Grace and my next child and hopefully more to come after that.

source

Rosie O’Donnell, The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, pregnancy

Here is the schedule for The View for September 24-28th (subject to change):

MONDAY, SEPT. 24 – Jimmy Smits (“Cane”); Senator Joe Biden (author, “Promises to Keep”); Zachary Levi (“Chuck”).

TUESDAY, SEPT. 25 – Jenny McCarthy (author, “Louder Than Words”); Joey Fatone (“The Singing Bee”).

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 26 – Kate Walsh (ABC’s “Private Practice”); Christopher Titus (ABC’s “Big Shots”).

THURSDAY, SEPT. 27– 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 28 – Jason Lee (“My Name is Earl”), ABC News’ Diane Sawyer (“Good Morning America”).

The View, Barack Obama, Jenny McCarthy, Kate Walsh, Joey Fatone, Diane Sawyer, Jason Lee, Christopher Titus

Joy Behar revealed that she was bumped from Larry King, Live last night because of the coverage of O.J. Simpson. She will be on tomorrow night. O.J. has a girlfriend who looks a lot like Nicole Brown, which Elisabeth Hasselbeck finds a “little creepy.” Sherri Shepherd says that O.J. is very charming, which is why he was probably able to convince his accomplices to storm into the hotel room.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to go to Ground Zero and lay a wreath. Joy said that they should stop him for security reasons. Elisabeth said that they have stopped him because of “construction” reasons, which is the same reason they used to prevent victims’ family members from going to Ground Zero.

They gave an update on the Jena 6 issue that they discussed yesterday. The town of Jena feels like they are getting a bad wrap.

They next discussed Kid Nation, which is a reality show where children are left to run a town on their own, without adult supervision. Elisabeth said that it showed some kids that were good leaders and very determined to make the town work. It also showed a little eight-year-old boy who said that he was too young to be there and was crying. Elisabeth joked that she thought at age 23 she was too young to be on Survivor. Joy joked that the crying boy would probably have his own show soon.
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According to the Baltimore Sun, Tim Hasselbeck, husband of The View host Elisabeth Hasselbeck has found new employment. Tim, who was cut from his third string quarterback job by the New York Giants prior to the start of the season, will provide commentary during Sunday’s NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Arizona Cardinals. The game will air on Fox.

There is no word, yet, if this is a one-time gig or if he will work with Fox for the remainder of the NFL season.

The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Tim Hasselback

Today’s episode of The View was without Barbara Walters. They started the show talking about the Barry Manilow controversy. Whoopi Goldberg stated that Barbara and Bill Geddie have had a policy since the beginning of the show that if “you don’t sit with one, you’ll sit with none.” She said that they have talked and “made peace” and that Barry is going to be on the show at some point in the future. I found it interesting that Whoopi made this announcement, rather than Barbara when she was on the show yesterday. Whoopi said, “This is coming from Barbara” and Bill Geddie, yet they had Whoopi say it for them? I wonder why?

Joy Behar said that there are people who do not agree with her politics or Whoopi’s politics and don’t want to be on with them, so they aren’t on the show, either. She said “We practice free speech here everyday.” Elisabeth said that the “beauty of this is that we operate, I think, as courageous women who sit here everyday and love one another through our differences, not despite them and I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

The next topic was Sherri Shepherd’s comment yesterday that she never thought about whether the world was round or flat. She said that it was hard for her because she has never had to defend her religious beliefs in public. She said that yesterday she was “really nervous” and had a “senior brain poofy moment” and just did not hear the question right. She said that she knows that the earth is round.
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Today’s recap won’t be up until this evening. Feel free to leave your thoughts about today’s episode in the comments!

The View today consisted of the full panel again. Did anyone else notice that Elisabeth Hasselbeck took a deep breath before they started hot topics? At first I thought it was because they were going to mention the Barry Manilow controversy, but it was not brought up.

The first important, pressing topic was whether Britney Spears is going to lose custody of her children. Her former body guard said that he saw her walking around naked in front of the kids. Sherri said that she walks around nude in front of her son, who is two-and-a-half. He points at her and says “Mommy, boobies!” She said that she doesn’t know when it starts to be inappropriate to be naked in front of her son. Joy Behar said that she thinks that it is worse if a father walks around naked in front of little girls. (Anyone else wonder why they only mentioned the “naked in front of the kids” issue and not the fact that the bodyguard reportedly said that Britney used drugs, maybe even around the children? That is obviously a bigger issue than being naked).
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Rosie O’Donnell will not be promoting her new book Celebrity Detox on The Oprah Winfrey Show, even though Oprah extended an invitation. Rosie instead has granted an interview with Diane Sawyer who has interviewed Rosie in the past. (See update below. It appears Rosie will not be doing any interviews).

The book, which is due out in October, is currently 12th on the Amazon best-seller list based on pre-orders. The book talks about dealing with fame and celebrity, including Rosie’s time on The View.

UPDATE: On her blog, Rosie made a statement which reads, in part:

for now
i decided no interviews
about celebrity detox
it is too raw

my no
has nothing 2 do with anything
but me
my need 2 find my place
within

oprah is a force of nature
her invitation made me cry
her kind words about the book
reinforces what we all know
2 b true about her

For the full post, check out Rosie’s blog.

Rosie O’Donnell, Celebrity Detox, Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer