- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
Rosie O’Donnell may be content to return to The View, but that’s not a move viewers should expect from Meredith Vieira anytime soon.
On top of the fact that Vieira’s own syndicated talk show from NBCUniversal launches this fall, the founding moderator of ABC’s rapidly changing panel series says it’s not of interest to her.
“No, I knew after nine years that it was my time to leave The View,” she told reporters during a Monday panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. “I have a pretty good sense of timing and when to leave before something bad happens.”
PHOTOS A New ‘View’: Possible Panelists to Fill the Empty Seats
Shortly after the retirement of founding panelist Barbara Walters, both Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy announced departures from the program. O’Donnell, Vieira’s replacement when she bowed out in 2006, returns this fall after a long absence alongside Whoopi Goldberg.
Vieira, who was on hand for Walters’ final episode of The View and several others, notes that it was a different experience for her now.
“I’m sort of the crazy aunt of The View,” she said. “You can’t go home again. I wish them the best.”
Her own show comes at a time when the daytime landscape is as competitive as ever, and though there are aesthetic and production choices — a set resembling her own home, a live band, a weekly visit from a service dog who eventually is paired with a new owner — that she hopes will break through, she’s banking on her reputation with viewers who already know her.
“I think they can smell a fake a mile away. I think they want real and they want to connect with somebody,” she added. “I think shows tend to look alike because they keep copying each other. I purposefully haven’t been watching anything on in the day.”
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day