'The View' Won't Be Changing That Much

It has been almost two weeks since Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy announced they were leaving The View and, in so doing, rocked the face of daytime television FOREVER! Well, maybe not forever, but it was certainly a shock to longtime fans of The View who didn't see this coming. Whoopi Goldberg is currently left to hold down the fort alone, but ABC has done everything that they could to reassure everyone that exciting things are still to come. Could those exciting things include a familiar face? According to TMZ, Rosie O'Donnell is in negotiations to return to The View and that would be a smart move on ABC's part.

Jenny McCarthy might have left the show after under a year of appearing on it, but Sherri Shepherd has been a staple of The View for seven years. There are some that have grown up watching her on the panel. Comparatively, Rosie O'Donnell was only on the show from 2006 to 2007, but in her short time on the show she brought the highest total viewership that the program had ever seen. Her departure from The View was not without controversy, but if O'Donnell really is in negotiations to return then it's clear that both sides are willing to bury the hatchet for the purposes of keeping such a feminist-friendly program alive.

Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O'Donnell didn't host the show at the same time, but we have no doubt that the two women will build a good rapport because they have very similar career trajectories. They're both outspoken comedian-actresses who were practically born to have a talk show. We may not always agree with them, but they are very good at generating discussion and debate. In fact, Goldberg and O'Donnell are both such strong-minded personalities that it will be worth bringing O'Donnell back just to see where they agree and where they butt heads on a regular basis.

O'Donnell is the first name that has come up in the discussion of who will be filling the two chairs left vacated by Shepherd and McCarthy, but re-introducing former hosts is a great way for ABC to help people transition into the bright new future of The View. Change can be exciting, but most people — especially those who watch daytime shows — have a set routine that they don't like to deviate from too much. Goldberg and O'Donnell will give them two familiar faces, which would ease them into accepting whoever ABC chooses to fill the third (or even a fourth) chair.

Image: ABC