Jenny McCarthy slams “The View, ”reveals scathing reaction when asked if she'd return as cohost
- - Jenny McCarthy slams “The View, ”reveals scathing reaction when asked if she'd return as cohost
Joey NolfiJanuary 8, 2026 at 1:29 AM
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Jenny McCarthy on 'The View'Key Points -
Jenny McCarthy slammed The View and praised Donald Trump when asked about potentially returning to the talk show.
The actress said she was initially brought on as a cohost to discuss "light, fluffy, and fun" topics.
When the show got political, she panicked: "Getting through that year was really difficult."
Jenny McCarthy hasn't quite warmed up to the thought of returning to The View's Hot Topics table any time soon.
The former cohost and current Masked Singer judge revealed a scathing reaction to a question about potentially returning to the long-running talk show on a recent episode of the Katie Miller Podcast (below), and even praised Donald Trump in her assessment of the series' current status.
"The reason why they wanted to bring me on is because they, quote, said it was too polarizing. They thought it was too polarizing back then, you guys!" McCarthy said on the podcast, adding that the wanted to bring her on as a permanent panelist in 2013 "for light, fluffy, and fun" commentary on pop culture topics ranging from Dancing With the Stars to The Bachelor.
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Jenny McCarthy at 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' premiere
"Well, that lasted a week. That lasted a whole week," McCarthy said, adding that she didn't consider herself "to be a political person" back then, which is why she thought she "was perfect for the job" that lasted only one season, from 2013 until co-creator Barbara Walters' final year on the show in 2014.
McCarthy said that the show quickly wanted to get political after she joined, leading her to question her abilities to offer meaningful commentary on the panel.
“Today we’re going to be discussing the hostage situation and whether the United States government should pay the ransom or not. And I was like, ‘What?’" McCarthy said of the kinds of topics that threw her for a loop at the time. "I’m like, ‘I just know who won Dancing With the Stars.’ So, getting through that year was really difficult."
Today, she's "much more political," McCarthy said, and values her ability to have more outspoken opinions than when she was a cohost on The View.
She said that "our latest administration has helped so much" with her confidence in speaking out about things she feels strongly about.
"But, back then? Ooh, I would not, I would never even," she said, adding that "They’ve asked me to come back for, like, reunion shows. I was like, over my dead body would I ever step foot in that place."
ABC/JEFF LIPSKY
'The View' cohosts Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, Joy Behar, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Whoopi Goldberg
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for The View for comment.
McCarthy is not the only former View cohost to criticize the show after leaving. Meghan McCain, a conservative who left the program in 2021, has regularly targeted her former workplace on her own podcast.
In March 2025, McCain said that Rosie O'Donnell — another former cohost who has criticized the program — "was actually the first person that warned me The View is a cesspool."
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Elsewhere, McCain has said that the current cohosting panel is comprised of "crazy old people" who bully her, and compared her past exit from the "miserable" cohosting gig to that of a bomb going off in the building.
The View airs weekdays on ABC. Listen to McCarthy discuss her time on the talk show at around the 40-minute mark in the podcast episode above.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
