‘The View’ co-creator Bill Geddie dies at 68

“The View” hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin are mourning the loss of the popular talk show’s co-creator Bill Geddie, who died on Thursday. He was 68.

“We are saddened by the sudden death of Bill Geddie,” Behar tweeted Friday. “As a producer, he kept us together and was very loyal to his staff.”

Behar remembered the producer as a man who loved comedy and cigars. She also thanked the “Viewmaster” — along with co-creator Barbara Walters, who died last year — for bringing her on board when the morning talk show launched in 1997.

ABC credits Geddie with helping create “The View” and serving as its longtime executive producer. His work led to numerous Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Talk Show, as well as the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Geddie left “The View” in 2014 after 17 years, around the same time Walters stepped away from her hosting duties. He then went on to serve as an executive producer on ABC’s “Tamron Hall” from 2019 to 2020. His decades-long television career also included time at “Good Morning America.”

Hostin was a senior ABC legal correspondent when she joined “The View” in 2016, after Geddie left, but still thinks of him as “a mentor.”

“My friend and mentor Bill Geddie has transitioned at 68,” she tweeted. “Bill was the first person to believe that I could be a national talk show host.”

Geddie is survived by his wife of 44 years, Barbara, and their two daughters. In a statement to Variety, they said the family patriarch “was a big deal in TV, but at home he was an even ‘bigger than life’ husband and dad.’”

He reportedly died from “coronary-related factors.”

A representative for “The View” told the Daily News that the program planned to honor Geddie when it returns to the air on Monday.

The show announced his death on Friday, writing on social media, “It’s with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of ‘The View’ co-creator and one of television’s most well-respected producers, Bill Geddie. He was a pioneer in television ... ‘The View’ wouldn’t exist without Bill Geddie.”

“The View” has won more than 30 Daytime Emmy Awards and is one of the most-watched shows on television.

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