The other day I read that Joy Behar (co-host of “The View”) had said on CNN’s ”The Joy Behar Show” that she disagreed with the support for Mel Gibson voiced by Whoopi Goldberg (co-host of “The View”), adding that Barbara Walters (high priestess of “The View”) would not want to have Gibson as a guest after his latest troubles.
Two things occurred to me: 1) Why in the world would Gibson want to go on “The View”? and B) That’s a lot of cross-promotion going on for the co-hosts of the ABC talkfest.
Then, the next day, Gibson was out of the picture for a minute as Behar and Elizabeth Hasselbeck (co-host of “The View”) disagreed over whether comments made by comedian Kathy Griffin about the daughters of Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown were funny or disrespectful.
Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner said it best: “I’d like to be cyncial, but it’s so hard to keep up.”
As a society, we talk too much, say too little and listen hardly at all. We’re all guilty, as we chat, post, blog, tweet, gab, IM, blabber and spout our way through the week. “The View,” at least, takes all of that in and manages to disperse it through five hours a week.
You could hardly ask for anything more … but television, being willing to push gibberish on blabber addicts, has found a way to give us more anyway.
Starting in September, CBS will broadcast a daily gabfest of its own … starring not four co-hosts of varying degrees of celebrity, and not five, but SIX co-hosts! That’s going to be one crowded coffee table set.
CBS said the hosts of the as-yet untitled daytime show include Sharon (Mrs. Ozzy) Osbourne; Sara Gilbert of TV’s “Roseanne” fame; Holly Robinson Peete from “Celebrity Apprentice;” Broadway actress Marissa Jaret Winokur; Leah Remini of “The King of Queens;” and Julie Chen, who hosts CBS’ “Big Brother” and “The Early Show.”
CBS spokesman Chris Ender put it quite well, saying “we think it has the potential to stand out and make some noise” … as if this were a good thing.
I know what you’re thinking (well, I know what I’m thinking): How are they going to have time to squeeze in the guests? But, of course, these shows have long since stopped being about the guests. They’re about the hosts, what the hosts have to say about the day’s news (and, more precisely, the pseudo-events that qualify as “news”) and what the hosts have to say about what the other hosts have said about the day’s pseudo-news.
The show this new CBS production is replacing on the schedule is “As The World Turns,” which for 54 years held an audience with its neverending tales of the lives of people in Oakdale, Illinois. Which seems appropriate, given that these talkfests have basically become soap operas of their own … filled with deceit and infighting and jockeying for power.
Sometimes more is better; sometimes, it’s just more. With six co-hosts talking, it probably won’t matter if anyone listens.
