ABC’s The View is currently in the midst of its 30th season, which has marked the return of some veteran panelists amid the 2026 TV schedule. Throughout this milestone year for the show, some of its current hosts have been reflecting on the daytime talk show’s history and their experiences on it. Veteran co-host Joy Behar also recently shared her recollections and in the process, mentioned “mean girls” having been on the daytime staple. This comes years after her disagreement with series alum Meghan McCain, but who’s in the right here?
Joy Behar Shares A Statement On Some Of The Hosts Who’ve Been On The View
Behar is one of The View’s original panelists, as she joined the Barbara Walters-created talk show when it premiered back in 1997. While she left the show in 2013, she made guest appearances until returning to her full-time duties in 2015. Behar opened up about her work on the series during a wide-ranging interview with Vulture. The article mentions Meghan McCain replacing Candace Cameron Bure as the show’s conservative pundit on the dais in 2017 and, afterwards, Behar is quoted as saying:
This group now is very good. They all have a sense of humor. Nobody’s mean over there. Over the years, there’s been a couple of little mean girls.
Of course, Behar doesn’t explicitly name McCain when discussing those alleged “mean girls.” It’s no secret, however, that McCain and Behar got into their share of on-air skirmishes due to their disagreements on different topics. For example, when McCain returned to the show in January 2021 following maternity leave, she and Behar got into a spat after the former mused that the latter missed her. Behar responded by saying, “I did not miss you. Zero.” In 2022, McCain would attribute that comment to her reasoning for leaving the show.
Whether or not Behar is actually talking about McCain during that recent interview is uncertain, and there’s always the possibility that Behar is referring to another former host or two. But, at the very least, it’s hard not to assume Behar is referring to McCain, given their history. That aside, though, McCain has also shared her own side of what went down when she was on the ABC show.
Meghan McCain Didn’t Hold Back About Her Time On The View After Leaving
In July 2021, McCain officially announced that she’d decided to exit The View after four seasons. She confirmed the news on air, telling viewers and her co-hosts that it was a “difficult decision” but that she wanted to step away in great part to care for her baby girl, who was born in 2021. She went on to say that her time on the show was “one of the hands-down greatest” honor she’d had in her career. McCain also spoke about having had the “privilege to work alongside such strong brilliant, intelligent and credible broadcasters.”
The View Is Planning A Special 30th Anniversary, But It Sounds Like Shots Fired At Meghan McCain
By the fall of 2021, though, McCain shared very different thoughts about being on the show. The podcaster took part in a lengthy interview with Variety and shared candid details about alleged backstage problems. McCain accused the show of fostering a “toxic work environment” and said the experience “felt extremely isolating because of my political ideology.” She also alleged that “people were not comfortable around” her amid production and that a disproportionate amount of negative stories were leaked about her in comparison to her co-stars. ABC execs later denied McCain’s claims and accused her of stirring up drama on set.
The overall question seems to be whether Meghan McCain really was one of those “mean girls” being alluded to by Joy Behar or if the two simply have different takes on working as View panelists. It’s hard to say whether the public at large may ever get a concrete answer on that front. What appears to be crystal clear right now, based on other comments McCain has shared, though, is that she has no plans to return to the show for its 30th season.
New episodes of The View air weekdays at 11 p.m. ET on ABC, and they can also be streamed with a Hulu subscription.
