Disney CEO Bob Iger and other senior executives have reportedly asked the co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” to tone down their inflammatory political rhetoric.
According to a report from The Daily Beast citing multiple sources within Disney, both Iger and ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic recently suggested that the daytime talk show hosts should be less hostile when it comes to political issues. The recommendation appears to have been discarded, however.
The long-running show’s current lineup features Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar, all three of whom have a history of making inflammatory statements about President Trump, his supporters, white people, Christians and dozens of other identity groups they seemingly harbor deep hatred for.
“This is what our audience wants. Isn’t it gonna look kind of bad if we’re all of a sudden not talking about politics?” one source told the outlet while attempting to paraphrase what the co-hosts said in response.
“Karamehmedovic convened a meeting with The View‘s executive producer Brian Teta and its hosts, and suggested the panel needed to broaden its conversations beyond its predominant focus on politics,” The Daily Beast reported.
The ABC president pointed to successful non-political segments the show has had in recent months, many of which featured high-profile guests, and suggested they pursue more of this content. Ana Navarro, another far-left co-host who routinely describes herself as a “Republican strategist,” was reportedly the most forceful in her pushback against the suggestion.
According to Navarro, ABC’s audience wants to hear the all-female talk show’s political opinions and would suffer a decline in viewership if they toned down the rhetoric.
The sources told The Daily Beast that Navarro and her co-hosts found the suggestion to be “silly” and insisted they would “keep doing their thing.”
They also shared details on a conversation between Navarro and Iger during an event last week held by the ABC parent company that was intended to provide an attractive proposal to advertisers.
The “Republican strategist” told Iger that she appreciates his support for the program given the nation’s tense political climate. Iger reportedly responded with kind words of his own, though he did add that he would like to see a reduction in divisive political content.
Back in February, the New York Post reported that “The View” executive producer Brian Teta had asked the hosts to try “going easy” on Trump in the weeks leading up to his inauguration. The request was made after a general feeling of low morale on the set after Trump’s historic comeback election victory.
One of the sources told The Daily Beast that ABC will “constantly have conversations with talent based on viewer feedback,” noting that the conversations with “The View” co-hosts is part of that process.
