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The View has had a changing panel, but not every guest who sits at the Hot Topics table is an official host. Among the program’s recurring or permanent co-hosts, public explanations for leaving include retirement, another job, family priorities, a contract that was not renewed, and network lineup changes. Some departures have no clearly established public reason.
Who is on The View now?
ABC’s September 4, 2026 announcement identifies the Season 30 co-hosts as Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Ana Navarro. Several have left and later returned, so a past departure does not necessarily mean a host is gone for good.
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Who counts as a host?
This list covers official recurring or permanent co-hosts with a seat at the Hot Topics table. It excludes guest co-hosts and occasional contributors unless they later became official panelists. That distinction matters because the show has regularly used guest appearances and rotating guests; a brief stint is not the same as holding a full-time seat. The program premiered on August 11, 1997, created by Barbara Walters as a forum for women with different backgrounds and opinions to discuss everyday issues and current topics.
Departures and returns, in the order they happened
Debbie Matenopoulos
Matenopoulos left after Season 2. ABC News described her exit as abrupt, and TVLine later reported that she was replaced. The available accounts do not establish the full private reasoning behind the change.
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Meredith Vieira
Vieira left in 2006 to succeed Katie Couric as co-anchor of Today, ABC News reported. Her departure was a move to another television job.
Lisa Ling
After nearly four years on the panel, Ling left to return to international reporting, according to ABC News.
Star Jones
Jones said her contract was not renewed for Season 10. “I feel like I was fired,” she told ABC News, describing the decision in her own terms. ABC News also reported that Barbara Walters said Jones would no longer appear after Jones had publicly announced her departure. This was a contract decision, not a retirement.
Barbara Walters
Walters retired from the panel in May 2014. ABC presented her final week as a celebration of her career; she remained an executive producer. During that week, executive producer Bill Geddie called her “irreplaceable.”
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Joy Behar
Behar said in 2013 that she had put in 16½ years, felt the timing was right, and wanted to explore other opportunities. A later TVLine retrospective says she was let go after Season 16. Those accounts differ: her contemporaneous explanation and the later retrospective should not be collapsed into a single, certain explanation. Behar returned at the start of Season 19 and is on the Season 30 panel.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck
TVLine’s retrospective says Hasselbeck was let go after Season 16; she later co-hosted Fox & Friends. ABC News had denied rumors that she was leaving earlier in 2013, so those earlier reports are not evidence of the reason she ultimately left.
Rosie O’Donnell
O’Donnell’s first departure came in 2007, after a heated on-air exchange with Hasselbeck. ABC News quoted O’Donnell telling Oprah Winfrey, “I didn’t want to argue for a living.” She returned for Season 18 and left again during that season. The explanation for her first exit does not establish why she left the second time.
Sherri Shepherd
Shepherd said she had decided in the spring not to return when her contract ended in August 2014. She described her seven-year tenure as complete: “I’ve been here seven years, and my time with ‘The View’ is complete.” ABC characterized the broader 2014 panel change as a creative evolution.
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Jenny McCarthy
McCarthy left after one season, saying she had taken a new job. ABC grouped her departure with a creative change to the panel. Reports at the time speculated about firings, but that speculation should not be treated as an established explanation.
Rosie Perez and Nicolle Wallace
Perez and Wallace joined for Season 18 and were gone after one season, according to TVLine. The sources reviewed do not give a first-person or official explanation for either departure, so a specific motive is not established.
Michelle Collins
Collins succeeded Wallace and Perez and served for one season, TVLine reports. A specific reason for her departure is not established in the available accounts.
Raven-Symoné
Raven-Symoné left during Season 20 to headline Disney Channel’s Raven’s Home, according to TVLine’s retrospective. That explanation comes from the retrospective rather than a quoted first-person statement here.
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Candace Cameron Bure
TVLine links Bure’s departure after two seasons to other television projects, including Fuller House. The retrospective does not establish that those projects were the only factor.
Paula Faris
Faris left after Seasons 19–21 for a new assignment as a senior national correspondent at ABC News, according to TVLine.
Jedediah Bila
Bila left after two seasons and returned to Fox News, TVLine reports.
Sara Haines
Haines left after Seasons 20–21 to host GMA3, then returned in Season 24. She remains a co-host in Season 30.
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Abby Huntsman
Huntsman left in January 2020 to help her father, Jon Huntsman Jr., during his Utah gubernatorial campaign, ABC News reported. TVLine likewise says she resigned to work on the campaign.
Meghan McCain
McCain announced in July 2021 that she would leave at the end of Season 24. ABC said she had made the decision for herself and her family, and that the network respected and understood it. Her public explanation is the basis for describing the departure; claims about backstage conflict should not be substituted for it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Official co-hosts who have not left
Whoopi Goldberg
Goldberg joined in 2007 after O’Donnell’s first departure and remains the moderator and a Season 30 co-host.
Sunny Hostin
Hostin joined in Season 20 and remains on the Season 30 panel.
Ana Navarro
Navarro was a contributor from Season 19 and a recurring guest co-host from Season 22 before ABC officially named her a co-host in 2022. She remains on the current panel.
Alyssa Farah Griffin
Griffin joined as an official co-host in Season 26 and remains on the Season 30 panel.
Why the exits do not have one common explanation
The public record points to different circumstances, not one standard reason for leaving The View. Some hosts announced a new job or personal priority; others retired or had a contract not renewed; ABC also described a broader creative change to the panel. The clearest explanations are contemporaneous statements from the host or ABC. Later retrospectives can add context, but their claims should remain attributed, and where no reason is established, it is more accurate to say so than to infer one from tenure or ratings.
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