‘The View’ Renewed, EP Locked In, Panelists’ Future TBA
ABC News announced this morning it was bringing back The View for a 20th season. Also headlined in today’s announcement was news that Candi Carter, who has been interim showrunner since September, has been named EP, effective immediately.
No mention was made as to whether the show’s Den Mom, Whoopi Goldberg, or any of this season’s other panelists would be back for that 20th season. Many of their contracts are up this year, including Goldberg’s. Most of the freshman panelists nabbed one-year pacts after a roller coaster 18th season that saw Rosie O’Donnell exit less than six months after rejoining the show she’d previously appeared on the acrimonious, headline-grabbing 2006-07 season. Not long after her exit, The View shed new panelists Rosie Perez and Nicolle Wallace. This season’s panelists include returned Joy Behar, Candace Cameron Bure, Michelle Collins, Raven-Symoné and ABC News’s Paula Faris
The View is now grappling with its CBS rival The Talk for eyeballs in the genre that The View creator Barbara Walters pioneered 19 seasons ago. And this season to date, its numbers are down compared to last season.
In total viewers, the show is averaging is 2.68M viewers this season, through 21 weeks, while The Talk is clocking 2.73M. The View also lags behind The Talk among women 25-54: 546K to 593K. In women 18-49 The View’s 401K follows The Talk’s 421K.
(The View is, however, besting the fourth hour of NBC’s Today show (2.33 million viewers) this season by 350K viewers. It’s also edging out Today’s fourth hour by a slim 1K viewers among women 25-54.)
In making the renewal announcement this morning, ABC News could note that for the week of February 8, The View edged out The Talk by 70K viewers in total viewers (2.974M v 2.904M), and by 8K among women 18-49 (433K v 425K). The View trailed The Talk among women 25-54 by 17K (609K v 626K). The news division noted it was The View‘s 2nd consecutive weekly total-viewer win, and its fourth win in the younger demo of the past six weeks.
Today’s announcement was made official after the show today, on set by ABC News president James Goldston and Walters, joined by Carter.
“This season The View has once again been at the very heart of the political conversation and cultural conversation in America,” Goldston said of today’s news. Since September, the show has featured GOP hopefuls Donald Trump by phone, John Kasich by satellite, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul. Dem hopeful Martin O’Malley also appeared on the show, but the show’s big election cycle “get” to date was Bernie Sanders when he took his victory lap in New York after winning the New Hampshire party primary.
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