Joe Biden on The View - H 2014
ABC/Lou RoccoThe View is about to be almost unrecognizable from the show it was last year. Less than two months after Barbara Walters‘ retirement from the daytime talk show, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that longtime panelist Sherri Shepherd and newcomer Jenny McCarthy are exiting.
“The View will be moving in an exciting new direction next season and ABC has made decisions to evolve the show creatively,” reads an ABC statement.
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Shepherds’s departure after seven years on the ABC show’s panel comes after last summer’s exits for original cast member Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Only one of those seats had been filled with the 2013 addition of McCarthy.
After initial reports of Shepherd’s departure, McCarthy took to her Twitter account to address her own exit. As of Thursday, only moderator Whoopi Goldberg was still on board for the series’ upcoming 18th season.
All of these changes for The View comes amid ratings declines for the once dominant show. Female driven panel show and CBS competitor The Talk has been making plenty of gains in the arena, and this fall sees the launch of yet another female-fronted panel show in syndicated daily The Real.
The transition for The View will also move studios, shifting to the vacant Katie‘s old studio in the ABC Broadcast Center on 47th Street in New York City.
