Joy Behar spent 29 years on television pretending to be happy.
Now Kathie Lee Gifford has gone on record saying what millions of Americans already see every morning.
The show didn't get darker because the times got harder – it got darker because Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg chose rage over joy.
Kathie Lee Gifford Called The View Vicious and Miserable
Gifford made the comments Monday on the "Tomi Lahren is Fearless" podcast, and she didn't bury the lead.
She told Lahren she used to go on The View without a problem – used to talk to Joy and Whoopi just fine – because back then, nobody was trying to make every conversation into a political sermon.
That's gone now.
She said the show has taken on a viciousness that wasn't there before, and that the women running it have become genuinely unpleasant people to watch.
She wasn't being cruel. She was being honest. There's a difference – and Kathie Lee Gifford has always understood that difference better than anyone on that ABC set.
Joy Behar Already Admitted The View Changed When Trump Won
Here's what makes this story cut deeper: Joy Behar already confessed to the same thing in 2022.
Behar told an interviewer the show transformed entirely after Trump won in 2016 – that the laughs dried up, and the panel made a deliberate choice to stop being entertainers and become political activists.
She framed it as a moral obligation. As if America needed Joy Behar to save democracy from her couch.
That choice produced exactly what Kathie Lee Gifford described: a show full of miserable people lecturing an audience that didn't ask to be lectured.
The View Booked 102 Liberal Guests and Zero Conservatives in 2025
A 2025 study tracked The View's guest bookings and found 102 liberal guests in the first half of the year alone.
Zero conservatives.
ABC's response was to claim celebrity guests don't count as political. Which is exactly what you'd say if you booked 102 liberal celebrities and zero conservative ones.
The show that Barbara Walters built to give women a platform for real conversation – multiple viewpoints, no script, just honest talk – is now a one-party operation with a laugh track.
Brian Kilmeade said it plainly: they used to be somewhat balanced.
They are not balanced now.
What Kathie Lee Gifford Has That Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg Lost
The contrast here isn't subtle.
Kathie Lee Gifford is 72 years old, a widow, spent decades in one of the most brutal industries on earth – and she radiates joy.
She just released Nero & Paul, the latest installment in her faith-based "Ancient Evil, Living Hope" trilogy exploring whether fame and power actually deliver what they promise. Her answer is no – and she's living proof of it.
She told Fox News Digital she's had all the fame and fortune anyone could want, and none of it matters next to her faith.
Compare that to Whoopi Goldberg threatening to walk off the set over celebrity gossip. To Joy Behar barely able to finish a sentence without recycling a talking point her co-host made six seconds earlier. To a show the White House's own press secretary called out by name – labeling Behar an "irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome."
That's not a political attack. That's an accurate description.
The Real Lesson Here
Behar built her identity around opposing Donald Trump.
Trump is still president. Behar is still miserable.
That's not a coincidence – that's what happens when you trade purpose for politics.
Kathie Lee Gifford chose something else. She chose faith over grievance and joy over outrage, and she's been living out that choice for decades while the women of The View ate themselves alive with anger.
Joy Behar chose rage over a career that should have aged into something worth watching.
Whoopi Goldberg chose to spend her mornings chasing a man who stopped thinking about her years ago.
That's the verdict. The evidence is right there on ABC every weekday at 11 a.m.
Sources:
- Hanna Panreck, "Kathie Lee Gifford calls out 'viciousness' on 'The View,' says everyone seems 'miserable,'" Fox News, March 11, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Kathie Lee Gifford says God 'made me famous' so she could be 'bold' about Jesus," Fox News, March 10, 2026.
- Taylor Penley, "The View faces backlash after study shows complete absence of right-leaning guests," Fox News, July 31, 2025.