Some 'The View' Hosts Wanted To Speak Out About Jimmy Kimmel Amid 'Panic' Backstage, Says Source
The hosts of The View were reportedly in a “panic” over ABC’s removal of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, leaving them in disagreement over how to respond.
Ultimately, hosts of The View remained silent on their network’s decision to remove Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show indefinitely, but a source tells the Daily Mail that Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, and Alyssa Farah Griffin were not aligned about the lack of response.
Some hosts allegedly wanted to speak out against their network while others were too fearful about being canceled themselves after the chair of the Federal Communications Commission suggested they may “look into” The View next after their move against Kimmel’s show.
“There’s definitely a difficult dynamic going on,” one source told Daily Mail. “The View is not going to discuss Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension because they’re at the same network. They’re not going to trash their own. It’s a general rule at ABC not to trash other shows.”
A Friday, September 19 episode of The View marked the second since Kimmel’s show was pulled from the air over comments the host made about conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk’s death.
Without making any mention of Kimmel, The View hosts continued business as usual with talk about Kamala Harris’s upcoming memoir, an interview with Lily James and more unrelated topics.
On social media, The View is facing backlash over their silence. “Why was there no mention of Jimmy Kimmel today? Did I miss it,” one viewer asked in the comments of a recent Instagram post. “I’ll be pissed if they did not mention him!”
“There’s panic across the board, but obviously with more politically based shows than the entertainment ones,” a source told the Daily Mail of The View’s silence on the topic. “Behind the scenes, staff are scared for their jobs. It’s a scary time. They’re really concerned. People are holding their breath.”
“Those who work in the media industry have been in fear for a while now, but last night’s news, you can say it has heightened their fear,” the source continued. “Some shows used to be without censorship, but now after Kimmel’s suspension, they’re going to have to be extra careful about what they say on national TV.”
Kimmel’s program was put on hiatus on Wednesday, Sept 17 after he said during his Monday monologue that the “MAGA Gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
Kimmel previously offered his condolences to Kirk’s family on social media, saying, “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”
FCC Chair Brendan Carr praised ABC’s decision and later said it may be “worthwhile” to look into The View while appearing on The Scott Jennings Radio Show on Sept. 18.
“When you look at these other TV shows, what’s interesting is the FCC does have a rule called the equal opportunity rule,” Carr said. “But there’s an exception to that rule called the bona fide news exception, which means if you are a bona fide news program, you don’t have to abide by the equal opportunity rule.”
“I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether The View and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place,” he added.