Top 10 Controversial The View Moments

If you don’t want to cause a stir, maybe don’t insult an entire occupation. The story begins at a Miss America competition. Miss Colorado, Kelley Johnson, a nurse specializing in Alzheimer’s Disease, appeared on stage in her uniform and performed a heartbreaking monologue about one of her patients and the meaning of her job. While discussing the monologue on “The View,” Michelle Collins said that Kelley had basically just “read her emails” on stage while Joy Behar asked why Kelley had a DOCTOR’s stethoscope around her neck. The outrage was immediate, with nurses creating #NursesUnite on social media and speaking about the importance of their jobs.

In 2010, Gibson was caught in a vicious feud with his partner, Oksana Grigorieva. In one particularly hateful voicemail, Gibson famously told Grigorieva that it would be her fault if she “got raped by a pack of [n-words].” He also allegedly referred to one of his employees as a “wetback.” While the outrage was immediate, Whoopi Goldberg defended Gibson on “The View,” saying that she personally knows him and that he is not a racist. This in turn led to more outrage, as people decried Whoopi for defending Gibson after he said such awful and clearly racist things. Joy Behar put it best when she said, “That language certainly sounds racist to me.”

Republican TV personality Jeanine Pirro, host of Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine” appeared on “The View” for just a few minutes before her segment was cut when she upset Whoopi Goldberg. During her appearance, Pirro covered a host of topics –defending the Russia–United States Helsinki summit, blaming Obama for everything, and telling Whoopi that she had a nonsense illness called Trump Derangement Syndrome. After Pirro began talking about immigrants killing children, Whoopi swiftly said goodbye (literally) and the other hosts brought the interview to a close.You don’t always have to respect everyone’s opinions!

In 2015, Venezuelan TV show host Rodner Figueroa was fired from his network after joking that Michelle Obama looked like a character from “Planet of the Apes.” It was an incredibly racist comment that generated a ton of ire from the public, but the controversy didn’t stop there. “The View’s” Rosie Perez declared on the show that the Latin community is very racist and that they never want to be grouped with black people. Guest star Raven-Symoné pounced on this discussion by then saying, “some people [naturally] look like animals.” This whole debacle was deeply steeped in racism that made no one look good.

This was another instance where Whoopi Goldberg’s difference of opinion with a Fox News star caused a stir. While visiting “The View” in October 2010, Bill O’Reilly made a few enemies with his controversial political comments. The topic was Park51, a proposed Islamic community center that was to be built just down the street from Ground Zero. Bill told the cast that “70% of Americans don’t want [the] mosque,” without citing a source; however, it’s actually from a CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll. Bill then declared that “Muslims killed us on 9/11,” prompting Whoopi to curse at Bill before walking offstage with Joy in disgust. They eventually returned, and Bill clarified his comment, but the damage had already been done.

Raven-Symoné is at it again, this time defending an abusive cop. In 2015, a video surfaced of a police officer violently taking down a student after she refused to get off her phone in class. Many people called the reaction unnecessary and excessive, and the officer was promptly fired. Raven-Symoné chimed in during the aftershow titled “After the View”and said that the student should have just followed the rules and put her phone away. While she did condemn the officer’s actions, many saw it as an example of victim blaming. People were outraged, and a Change.org petition was created calling for Raven-Symoné to be fired. It received 130,000 signatures in five days.

This one is a nice mix of controversy and painful awkwardness. The episode that aired on May 23, 2007 is probably one of the most famous episodes in “The View’s” history, prompted by a long-standing rivalry between Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. The topic was the Iraq war, and liberal Rosie and conservative Elisabeth were quickly at each other’s throats. It swiftly erupted into a massive fight that resulted in Joy and Sherri pretending to walk offstage and asking for a commercial break to diffuse the tension. Executive producer Bill Geddie later admitted that “it was a horrible day to be in ‘The View’ studio.” We can only imagine.

In August of 2015, cast members on “The View” were discussing Donald Trump’s racism and his controversial views on immigration. Wishing to attack Trump and his political beliefs, Kelly Osbourne said, “If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?” It was a ridiculously offensive thing to say and was quickly met with shocked gasps and rebuttals by her co-hosts. While Kelly said that she “didn’t mean it like that,” people were deeply offended, and Kelly was forced to issue an apology, singling out her “poor choice of words.” Yeah, you can say that again!

While Woody Allen’s art has been acclaimed, his personal life has long been the subject of scrutiny. His relationship with Soon-Yi Previn is well-documented, and in 2014, his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, wrote an open letter accusing her father of sexually assaulting her when she was seven years old. Barbara Walters came to Allen’s defense on “The View,” calling him a “loving” and “caring” parent, despite the sexual assault allegations. Walters and co-host Sherri Shepherd proceed to argue about Allen and his past, and the media quickly made scathing headlines of Barbara’s defense.







Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.



“Ghetto” Names





Cutting Off Meghan McCain

Here we have another instance of a host defending a controversial celebrity. In the mid-2010s, Cosby’s reputation was permanently tarnished after he became the subject of numerous sexual assault allegations, which included rape, child abuse, and drug-facilitated sexual assault. Whoopi Goldberg was quick to defend Cosby on numerous occasions, vehemently declaring that he was innocent until proven guilty. She then became the subject of numerous personal threats and late-night TV ridicule. To her credit, she later switched her stance and said that the evidence pointed towards his guilt. And it did indeed, as Cosby was found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in April 2018.