I have to fess up: for the past few months, I have been regularly watching The View on ABC. Nope, I’m not sprawled out in front of the television scarfing down leftover Halloween candy at eleven in the morning while my daughter is at preschool. I TiVo the program. That way I can watch it later, even if I am crazy tired. I usually don’t tune in until after my husband and toddler are fast asleep upstairs. But I still watch it with bleary eyes. And I like it. A lot. So much so I’m shocked I haven’t woken anyone up when I’ve yelled at the TV during one of Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s robotic Republican moments.
Sure, I get my news from CNN, ABC Nightly News, and various online newspapers, but for a great rock ’em sock ’em fight about politics, The View can’t be beat. HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher is a close second. But like all good girlfriends, the ladies of The View are brutally honest. Well, at least honest about what each of them perceives to be the truth. From the best panties to the cost of daycare, the “hot topics” segment is the best part of each episode.
But lately the ladies have been mostly talking about what everybody else is talking about politics: McCain, Obama, and their sidekicks Biden and Palin. Today’s show was a good one. (Yep, I cheated and watched it early so I could write this post—but I swear the Kit Kats are still in the candy bowl.) Well, today’s heated debate wasn’t Rosie vs. Hasselbeck; that’s still at the top of my fight list, but this episode was a keeper. This time the conservative Hasselbeck went up against her regularly liberal opponent, Whoopi Goldberg. The pair had another heated debate about race in America, but it quickly ended when Goldberg threw her hands up in frustration and said, “Ah, to hell with it.” Couldn’t have been any better unless she said, “To hell with her.” Ah, but she didn’t. Maybe next time.
No matter who your are rooting for—the Democrats or the Republicans—you have to respect the fact that a group of women can have an open debate about anything and everything—on television. Until this show premiered twelve years ago, few people cared what women on television had to say, including me. Yep, it’s true, and I work in television. I was living up in Philadelphia at the time when I heard that they planned to replace a highly regarded local news affair show with a ladies’ talk show on ABC. I thought the folks at ABC had gone a bit mad. I envisioned a show full of gossip, fashion, and fluff. After all, back then that’s what women’s shows were usually about. Well, except for Oprah. And I was right. The first few seasons of The View were lame. But then something happened: the ladies started talking politics and guess what? The producers struck ratings gold with the at home audience: largely stay-at-home-moms.Thanks to eight years of George W. and a historic election, The View is now more popular than ever drawing in viewers of both sexes, all ages and races. Where else can you tune in to see a conservative, an objective journalist, and three liberals go at it? I can’t wait to see what happens next. If McCain loses, will Hasselbeck be so distraught she quits the show and joins Palin in her 2012 quest for President? If, gasp, Obama blows it, will the other ladies be nicer to the victorious Hasslebeck? I can’t wait to find out. TiVo, don’t fail me now.
