I've watched The View since 2002 (Season 5). I started in the era of the show trialling women to be the fifth co-host (a role that ultimately went to Survivor contestant Elisabeth Hasselbeck). I watched when Meredith announced her departure, Star Jones "quit" live on the air, Rosie's first day and almost every Hot Topic over the last 17 years.
Still to this day, I regularly show people in the infamous Rosie/Elisabeth split screen fight.
The thing I loved was 5 strong woman (sometimes 3, 4, 6, 7, or even 8) debating the news items of the day, offering (you guessed it) different points of View. The point of the format is to shine light to both sides (or all sides) of an argument, political point or culture.
It was a show where controversy is built into it's DNA and over the years there has been plenty of headlines and rumours. We've seen co-hosts suddenly depart with no-notice and articles suggesting plenty of behind the scenes blow ups. Needless to say, I was pretty excited when I heard that Ramin Setoodeh was writing a book titled Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of "The View".
The book was released earlier this month and I got it straight away (Thank you Apple Books). I read it in one sitting and it does not disappoint.
I think for fans of The View, it confirms a lot; most co-hosts were indeed fired (despite announcing that they had a new job), Whoopi and Rosie's fights were like World War 3 and Barbara Walters was indeed a complicated person to walk through.
I highly recommend giving this a read - even if you haven't watched the show.
New episodes of The View (now in it's 22nd season) no longer air on Australian Television. You can watch full episodes on YouTube or even subscribe to The View Podcast to get Hot Topics every single day.
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