The ABC talk show is currently cohosted by Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and Ana Navarro.

Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Ana Navarro, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Sunny Hostin host ‘The View’.Credit: ABC/Lou Rocco

Following ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Trump-appointed FCC chairperson suggests the network’s daytime talk show The View could be targeted next.
The threat follows ABC affiliate owners’ swift response to Carr’s comments on a podcast Wednesday that led the network to suspend the late-night show.
ABC parent, The Walt Disney Company, and affiliate owners Nexstar and Sinclair all have business deals or are lobbying for deregulation that require Trump administration approval.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he thinks it would be “worthwhile” for his agency to “look into” The View.

“When you look at these other TV shows, what’s interesting is the FCC does have a rule called the equal opportunity rule,” Carr said Thursday on The Scott Jennings Radio Show. “But there’s an exception to that rule called the bona fide news exception, which means if you are a bona fide news program, you don’t have to abide by the equal opportunity rule.”

He said that, while “I would assume you can make the argument that The View is a bona fide news show,” he was “not so sure about that.”

Were it determined not to be a news show, regulation would require that The View give the same amount of time to the other side.

Carr continued, “I think it’s worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether The View and some of the programs that you have still qualify as bona fide news programs and therefore exempt from the equal opportunity regime that Congress has put in place.”

The ABC show, currently cohosted by Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and Ana Navarro, has become a daytime TV staple. (Notably, Griffin is a former communications director for President Donald Trump’s White House during his first term.) Content includes celebrity interviews as well as talk about the news of the day, from shopping trends to the subjects of cooking, health, and, yes, politics.

A rep for the show declined EW’s request for comment.

Jimmy Kimmel hosts ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ before his suspension.Disney/Randy Holmes

The words of Trump’s choice for the FCC head were even more significant because, just a day earlier, the same network had pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live from its schedule. ABC made the call in the wake of pushback from Carr and ABC affiliate station owners over host Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about “the MAGA gang” response to the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“We had some new lows over the weekend,” Kimmel said, “with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.”

Nexstar Media Group, which owns local television stations, said it would preempt the program in objection. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the most ABC affiliates, also planned to keep Kimmel’s show off its stations, writing in a statement that Kimmel’s “suspension is not enough” and calling on the “FCC and ABC to take additional action.”

“Sinclair also calls upon Mr. Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, we ask Mr. Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA,” Sinclair said in the statement.

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The FCC chairperson appeared on The Benny Show podcast earlier in the day, saying, “Disney needs to see some change here, but the individual licensed stations that are taking their content, it’s time for them to step up and say this, you know, garbage to the extent that that’s what comes down the pipe in the future isn’t something that we think serves the needs of our local communities.”

Notably, Nexstar and Sinclair have lobbied the FCC and Trump administration for deregulation, Deadline reported. In Nexstar’s case, a proposed acquisition of Tenga that requires Trump administration approval would create a monopoly of 265 stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, representing 80 percent of U.S. households. Nexstar currently owns 32 ABC affiliates of 200.

In its statement, Sinclair wrote, “We appreciate FCC Chairman Carr’s remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”

ABC’s parent company, The Walt Disney Co., also requires the Trump administration’s approval on its deal for ESPN to buy the NFL Network.

Trump claimed that Kimmel had been yanked from TV due to “bad ratings” and a “lack of talent,” despite besting his competitors, such as NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, which the president said should be next to go. He also name-checked the same network’s Late Night With Seth Meyers.

Amid all this, the women on The View remained mum on the subject, even about Kimmel, whose show airs on the same network, during Thursday’s episode.