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Overview: The View

About.com Rating 4

By Thomas Tennant, About.com

The Bottom Line
In a landscape dominated by male talk show hosts, The View has consistently offered an alternative. Funny and lively, the show pulls together four women of varied talents and age groups to discuss the day’s issues and interview celebrity guests.
Pros
  • Offers a female perspective in a male-dominated field
  • Timely
  • Funny
Cons
  • A lot of inside humor
Description
  • Airs Monday through Friday, usually at 11 a.m. on ABC (check local listings as this varies)
  • Co-hosts have changed over the years, and have included Debbie Matenopoulos and Lisa Ling.
  • Tom Selleck was the first guest on the first program in 1997.
  • Controversy! Star Jones Reynolds once equated George W. Bush’s ego with Osama Bin Laden’s.
  • With Meredith Vieira joining The Today Show, Rosie O’Donnell will join the cast in September.
Guide Review - Overview: The View

If you are a man and have never watched The View, you might be under the mistaken impression that it’s just a show with four women gabbing about “girl stuff.” But nothing could be further from the truth. Granted, the show’s premise lends itself to such discussion, but it is rare. Talk is brisk, funny and even ribald (which is great fun when Barbara Walters joins the group).

The show’s format is relatively standard for daytime talk shows, with the four hosts (Star Jones Reynolds, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselback, to be joined by Rosie O’Donnell in September) discussing “Hot Topics” during the opening, chatting about their individual lives, and then interviewing a range of guests for the remainder of the show. They are occasionally joined by Walters, who helped create the program.

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