The View Struggling to Find Meghan McCain’s Successor: Report
The View has been struggling to find a successor to Meghan McCain as the show’s conservative foil, reported Politico Playbook on Monday.
McCain left the show in July 2021 after four years. Since then, the show, currently in its 25th season, has had a rotation of guest hosts including former Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, CNN’s S.E. Cupp, former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah, former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, former GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, CNN’s Ana Navarro, and Mary Katharine Ham, and former Fox News co-host Eboni Williams.
View co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin “are upping the pressure to pick a successor, and voicing their displeasure at having to introduce new guest hosts week after week in a seemingly endless process that they find disruptive to the flow of the show,” according to Politico.
A View spokesperson told the outlet that the rotation of guest hosts will continue as Farah will appear in January. Additionally, former View co-host Lisa Ling and former New York Times opinion editor and writer Bari Weiss will make appearances in the new year. Weiss has appeared on the show multiple times.
According to Politico, citing “sources close to the show,” the hunt for McCain’s replacement has been a struggle for executives, who are looking for “a conservative cast-member who checks all the right boxes.”
Playbook continued:
They will not consider a Republican who is a denier of the 2020 election results, embraced the January 6 riots, or is seen as flirting too heavily with fringe conspiracy theories or the MAGA wing of the GOP. But at the same time, the host must have credibility with mainstream Republicans, many of whom still support DONALD TRUMP.
At the same time, the anti-Trump conservative can’t be seen as too chummy with the other co-hosts, as the network’s market research shows that the audience wants to see the women spar. Sources said that this has hurt the chances of ANA NAVARRO, a regular fill-in on the conservative chair who worked as a surrogate for JOE BIDEN in 2020: She is perceived by the producers as too friendly with the other hosts and not a traditional Republican.
“They are really looking for a unicorn,” said a former show staffer. “They want someone who is going to fight — but not too hard, because they don’t want it to be ugly and bickering.”
It doesn’t help that there’s a perception that whoever sits in the conservative host slot is on borrowed time, with prominent Republican former co-hosts like NICOLLE WALLACE, ELIZABETH HASSELBECK, ABBY HUNTSMAN and McCain leaving the show with claims of being bullied by their co-hosts and ABC executives on-set and off, while veterans like Goldberg and Behar have thrived.
Sources told Politico that the show considered libertarian commentator Kat Timpf, but she declined, as Playbook put it, “because of the show’s reputation for treating conservatives poorly and her contract with Fox.” She declined to comment to Politico.
A View spokesperson told Playbook, “Our plans are on track as we continue to look for the right person to join our panel of smart, dynamic women. We look forward to welcoming guest co-hosts for return appearances and introducing new names into the mix in the new year.”
