In 1997, Barbara Walters and executive producer Bill Geddie conceived a new daytime television talk show like we had never seen before, with five female hosts around one table, discussing hot topics and interviewing guests. It was set for controversy from the start. The original group of hosts consisted of Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, Joy Behar, Star Jones, and Debbie Matenopoulos. Since then, year after year the hosts have changed. While the original concept has remained the same, the controversy thickens with each new host added because, with each new host comes a host of her own opinions. There are some hosts who stand out as the most controversial in The View’s history, like these 10:
10. Joy Behar
Joy began as a fill-in for Barbara Walters when she was unable to film and soon became a permanent fixture around the table. The sassy, middle-aged New York comedienne was relatively unknown at the time to the North American audience. The crass remarks and tongue-in-cheek comments made her a quick favorite. Joy, speaking of the enemies she made with her jabs and quips, told Jay Leno, “I got in trouble a lot, I mean, people don’t know how much trouble I got into.” She was even briefly fired by Barbara Walters in 2006 after she spilled the beans on the announcement of Rosie O’Donnell joining the host table. Her most well-known controversy was in 2015 when a Miss America pageant contestant, who was a nurse, came out in uniform to do a monologue for her talent portion. Joy mocked and questioned why the nurse would be wearing a “doctor’s stethoscope” and the nurses of America did not take that well. Social media blew up and gave Joy a good tongue lashing. The controversy lasted on air for a week, but Joy remains in her host seat!
ABC