Former 'The View' Host Jenny McCarthy Reveals Boss Barbara Walter's Odd Request

Jenny McCarthy poses on the red carpet
Jenny McCarthy poses on the red carpet

Comedian Jenny McCarthy has scored many hosting gigs in her career. However, the show she is most famously known for hosting is 'The View.' According to Showbiz Cheat Sheet, McCarthy's time on 'The View' was no walk in the park. She struggled with Barbara Walters claiming that she was an overbearing boss.

“You know the movie Mommie Dearest? I remember as a child watching that movie and going, ‘Holy cow!’” McCarthy said of her boss Barbara Walters in an interview with Vulture.

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“I’ve never seen a woman yell like that before until I worked with Barbara Walters.”

McCarthy also revealed that she was given odd requests. The oddest to her was that she was asked to act Republican.

McCarthy first guest hosted on 'The View' in 2013.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I want to do something that has a little more class to it. And spread my wings a little bit,” she said, according to Vulture. “I thought to myself, ‘That’s where I’m going next.’”

“I went on and it went great, and I went on again,” McCarthy said. “They said, ‘You’re in the top consideration to be a co-host.’”

“Jenny brings us intelligence as well as warmth and humor,” Walters told USA Today at the time. “She can be serious and outrageous. She has connected with our audience and offers a fresh point of view. Jenny will be a great addition to the show as we usher in an exciting new chapter for The View.”

McCarthy was reluctant to join the show, but producers told her they were going in a new direction.

“How Bill [Geddie] sold it to me is that they actually let go of Joy and Elisabeth because they wanted to get rid of politics,” McCarthy said. “It was polarizing. That’s the word he kept using: It was very polarizing to the audience. We want pop culture, irreverent, fun, sassy… I checked all those boxes for him.”

However, the new direction didn't work for Walters.

"They initially had me come on to be the pop-culture girl because they wanted to change it,” McCarthy said on 'Watch What Happens Live' in December 2018. “And then Barbara didn’t know who anybody was, pop culture-wise.”

That's when McCarthy was asked to change her stance on the show.

“And then they came in my dressing room and said, ‘Can you just act Republican so we have another point of view?'” the reality star recalled. “And I said, ‘How do I act Republican?’”

McCarthy left 'The View' after a year.