Did ABC News ‘beg’ Meghan McCain to stay on ‘The View’? Really?

Diana's 60th birthday

As we discussed yesterday, Meghan McCain announced her resignation from The View. She still had two years left on her contract, but she was easily the most hated person on the talk show, and she was just… completely f–king awful. Whoopi Goldberg hates her guts. Joy Behar hates her guts. I’m including Meghan’s long-winded announcement on yesterday’s episode of The View at the end of the post. I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I gather that she blamed it on being DC/Virginia-based half the time and something something fake news/media/whatever. According to Page Six’s sources, ABC really fought to keep McCain:

ABC didn’t let Meghan McCain go from “The View” without a fight. While the conservative co-host is expected to announce her resignation on Thursday morning’s show, a Disney source told Page Six that ABC desperately fought to keep her.

“ABC begged for her to stay [and] she said ‘No — I’m done! I’m not staying anymore,’” the source said. “They even offered a contributor role on ABC News, which she turned down. She’s just had enough. She doesn’t need it anymore — she really doesn’t need it.”

[From Page Six]

Didn’t need what, exactly? Doesn’t need to look like a giant a–hole every weekday for years on end? According to the Daily Beast, the president of ABC News Kimberly Godwin was concerned about the vibe on The View in recent months, and Godwin was possibly trying to get Behar to tone down the personal attacks against McCain. Behar’s version of events is different, and there are sources saying different things about whether ABC actually did want Meghan to stay. As for what happens to McCain next, sources tell the Daily Beast that while Fox News would love to have her back, she’s not going there:

Asked if the late maverick Republican and Trump-loathing senator John McCain’s daughter would ever be welcomed back by the right-leaning cable channel, where she spent a couple of years as an on-air contributor and regular co-host of Outnumbered before jumping to The View in October 2017, a Fox News spokesperson told The Daily Beast: “Meghan McCain is a star and we are always interested in exceptional talent.”

But, according to people familiar with McCain’s thinking, her attitude toward Fox News is basically “been there, done that.”

“She’s really outgrown it, and they’re just batsh-t crazy over there,” said one of McCain’s confidants.

Another reason, this person said, is that McCain’s husband, Ben Domenech, founder and publisher of The Federalist, a right-wing online magazine, is a regular Fox News contributor who is apparently expanding his on-air role there and recently subbed in the anchor chair for a vacationing Laura Ingraham.

Instead, according to this person and others in McCain’s orbit, she is weighing a number of ideas that would allow her editorial independence and time with her baby daughter Liberty while not requiring her to move from suburban Washington, D.C., to New York, a city for which she has little love.

Those possibilities include becoming a political contributor to ABC News, hosting a podcast featuring longform interviews with celebrities and politicos, and even working in the family business of politics. This fall, McCain’s audiobook, Bad Republicans—touted as a “blueprint” for “bold conservatism in the 21st Century”—is scheduled to be released by Audible.

[From The Daily Beast]

Yeah. I’m not worried about Meghan McCain. She’s a “star” of conservative media, which is just its own little show business for blondes and lunatics (and blonde lunatics). She’ll find work and the work will be awful.

Diana's 60th birthday

Screencaps courtesy of ABC/’The View’.

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32 Responses to “Did ABC News ‘beg’ Meghan McCain to stay on ‘The View’? Really?”

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  1. girl_ninja says:

    Ding Dong the blonde witch is gone. Good riddance.

  2. Amando says:

    Good riddance, but they will just replace her with someone equally as awful.

  3. Merricat says:

    Meghan McWho, now?

  4. STRIPE says:

    I believe they tried to keep her, tbh. Regardless of what we think of her, her fights with Joy generated a lot of press for the show. And now they have to scramble to find a replacement which they weren’t expecting to do for 2 years. They’ll be fine, obviously, but all that to say I believe it.

    • Snazzy says:

      yes I agree. People were always talking about it, which is what they wanted.

    • lucy2 says:

      This exactly. The only media coverage the show really gets is her saying batshit and awful stuff and everyone flipping out on her.

  5. Dana says:

    I can see her announcing a run for her father’s seat.

    • Pinellas Pixie says:

      That was my first thought. She believes herself entitled to that seat on the basis of being his daughter and the Princess of Arizona. She will run. IDK whether she will win seeing as the Arizona Republican Party censured her mother but I think she will run.

  6. Esma says:

    Oh no… I hope she doesn’t try to go into politics 🤦🏻‍♀️

    • pottymouth pup says:

      I’m waiting fro an announcement that she’s running in the next seat up for grabs coming out of Arizona

  7. Christine says:

    Don’t they usually have a conservative woman on the show. I remember Elisabeth Hasselbeck being on there and she was awful too, but not as bad as Meghan. I think if they did beg, it was probably just because of her last name. It’s one thing to have a blonde, hateful nobody on the show who spews dumb crap but daddy’s name legitimizes her.

    • Kviby says:

      I feel like EH was more conservative that MM but she just wasn’t always talking about her dad or being as cringey about it. Also MM does some gymnastics to be right or to defend trump sometimes! MM has /shares some views that aren’t too conservative but EH was on the show at a time where people weren’t ashamed to be socially conservative and hardline GOP and that’s how I remember her (though she had a “nice” way of expressing herself)

    • pottymouth pup says:

      the fact that even the other conservatives on the show had issues with McCain’s nonsensical “arguments” and that McCain couldn’t abide by conservative Ana Navarro being on panel when McCain was working says a lot about McCain and her understanding (or lack thereof) of issues

  8. taris says:

    the mccains aren’t exactly loved, actually, even on the republican side. “my father” (when he was still alive) was respected as a war hero, yes; and they do have name recognition, fine – but that’s as far as it goes.
    sure she’ll land on her feet somewhere but seriously i doubt everyone will be, like, clammering to have her.

    • pottymouth pup says:

      Meghan’s married to Ben Domenech (co-founder of the Federalist) and pretty much parrots his views, this will garner the support of the Trumpublicans

      • HEy says:

        I started the show for Ana Navarro. I will slightly miss Grumpy Disco Cat Meghan, but I don’t miss holding onto my chair whilst she spewed a stress storm onto the seat. I like to hear what the GOP think/feel, but won’t miss her outbursts

  9. Miranda says:

    In a way, it doesn’t really matter what her next move is. Thanks to her last name (did you know that her dad was John McCain? Because she hardly ever mentions it!), she’s going to be on “right wing welfare” for the rest of her life.

  10. Tanguerita says:

    There is no doubt in my mind that they wanted her to stay: she is the reason “The view” trended on twitter every time this stupid “do you know who my father was” person opened her mouth to spew some ill-informed, ill-educated nonsense. I’m sure they are heartbroken.

  11. Tate says:

    I could barely stomach the clips I saw online. I have no idea how anyone watched this entitled asshat day after day.

  12. sa says:

    I commented on the other post about her, that I don’t believe for a minute that this was her decision. I 100% believe she was fired (so no they did not beg her to stay).

    • Tanguerita says:

      I really don’t think they did. She was good for ratings and at the end of the day that’s all they care about. I believe however that Megan tends to overestimate herself: she probably thinks that there are some better options for her out there. People of her ilk always do.

      • sa says:

        Controversy ratings only go so far and last only so long, they’re not a long term marketing strategy. Her controversies (at least recently) have been met with near universal disdain for her personality, not her politics, and that’s not the kind of controversy that lures viewers, even in the short-term. Any benefit the show may have once gotten from her has, no doubt, dwindled and when you consider that she alienates the other hosts, and possibly even some potential guests, she becomes an obvious liability to the show. So, yeah, no question about it, she was fired.

  13. LMR says:

    I only see the View when I am working from home and forget to change the channel to Law & Order. I do think ABC wanted to keep her because the fights bring ratings. Ms. McCain said ONE thing I agree with when she called out the KP bullying allegations against Meghan Markle a pre-interview “Oppo dump”. But she wants to leave so let her go.

    It looks like Whoopi is over the whole thing anyway, boy do I miss her in the movies.

  14. SurvivalIsTheGame says:

    Controversy brings ratings so yeah it’s plausible they begged her to stay. I’ll bet she was just tired of feeling embarrassed constantly by being the lowest iq at the table, and will move right back to the maga moron echo chamber where there is clearly nothing anyone can do to embarrass themselves. She’s an intellectual lightweight and I really think she is tarnishing her father’s legacy.

  15. Ann says:

    I don’t watch The View but I have seen snippets and satire. Yeah, she seems awful, and she’ll get another job. I don’t mind the name Liberty for a girl, actually. A law school classmate of mine named her daughter that. Now McCain has to go and ruin it.

    Funny thing on Joy Behar, though. The guy who came to fix my chimney said he’d been to Behar’s house to fix hers. Her husband let them in, was very nice, while she shouted from upstairs not to let them get anything dirty. And she had a throw pillow with a giant middle finger aimed at the White House. This was while Trump was still there.

    Sorry, that’s off topic but I figured since Behar and McCain are in a war, a little color on Behar wouldn’t hurt anyone.

  16. Tiffany says:

    Columbia University graduate My Father who made a career in NYC has little love for NYC.

    Okay Mayo.

  17. Valerie says:

    I think she was actually fired. She was getting out of control. It went beyond being controversial for the sake of ratings. There were times where I believed that, had they been in the studio together, they would’ve had to physically restrain at least one of them because she was just looking to piss people off. She was racist, xenophobic, and actively promoted conspiracy theories, denying all the while that she wasn’t about any of those things. I don’t know what the hell happened to her on maternity leave, but she came back worse than ever.

    • Tiffany says:

      Ratings were up when she was on maternity leave. Up. She was not missed and Joy told her as much when she returned and Nutmeg was SHOOK and said that she was ‘just kidding’ around like friends do.

      She was only worst from there.

      Godwin had a sit-down with them and told them to cut it out and she was the only that had the audacity to leave in the middle of that meeting. Black woman let her know what’s up.

      • Valerie says:

        Joy basically told her yesterday that the only time they had fun together was when they’d been drinking, lol. She was absolutely not missed, and you could tell. If it were anyone else, I’d feel sorry for them, but Meghan is Meghan, so f her.

    • Valerie says:

      Correction: Denying that she *was about any of those things.

  18. Midge says:

    I really wish they could find a republican to replace her who is not unhinged and hypocritical. I think it’s good to have a dissenting opinion represented and then debated and refuted!

    • DenTom says:

      I agree but like most news shows, the View only spends a few minutes discussing complex issues. There isnt time for nuance or depth and McCain was great at getting her talking points out quickly and conversationally. I would love to see someone replace her with someone who demonstrates critical thinking not just asserts talking points.