The View Brings Politics to Daytime TV

The View is bringing politics to the daytime talk show, once the realm of cooking tips and fashion advice. Discussion of topics like health care is "one of the reasons I watch it," an audience member tells the Los Angeles Times. "When they do the fashion stuff, I tune out." Washington has also taken notice: "The View is definitely a show that makes it on to the agenda of staff meetings when you're doing strategic planning," says a strategist.

The show started to turn political during the 2006-07 season, when Rosie O'Donnell famously clashed with Elisabeth Hasselbeck over the Iraq war. By the 2008 presidential race, when John McCain was grilled by the co-hosts, The View had become a bona fide water-cooler topic, and now the ladies regularly welcome guests like Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. As the producer points out, "We live in a time when politicians are as big, if not bigger, than movie stars."
(More The View stories.)