Anyone who doubts the phenomenon known as Donald Trump isn’t good for ratings (and business) simply ask the producers over at “The View,” who most likely would have closed up shop years ago, if it wasn’t for the Donald, so say author Ramin Setoodeh.
The author of “Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive inside Story of “The View,” explains how the ABC daytime talk show owes its success and perhaps even its longevity to President Trump.
Setoodeh also explains within his book; how the network even predicted that Trump would easily outshine Hillary Clinton years before they faced off in the 2016 election.
“I think that the presence of Donald Trump has absolutely helped ‘The View.’ It’s given the show a reason to exist in terms of being able to react to all the big headlines in the news,” author Ramin Setoodeh told Fox News. “That is a notion that I’ve heard from executives and producers. It’s good for the show that Trump is President.”
“Ladies Who Punch” is an explosive expose inside the wacky world of the dysfunctional daytime gabfest show, featuring a bevy of rabid leftist celebrities the brainchild of the journalist and TV host Barbara Walters. The format forever changed daytime TV, into a debating slugfest, of emotionally unhinged progressives chewing on one another.
“Women at the table often saw themselves through the lenses of Hillary Clinton. She was like a phantom sixth co-host and Donald Trump, in some ways, was like a nemesis to the ladies on the show,” Setoodeh said.
Entertainment journalist Setoodeh has been covering “The View” for roughly a decade, establishing a harmonious rapport with many of the co-host both past and present.
He decided in the era of Trump that a behind-the-scenes story needed to be told regarding the unabridged daily “Shakespearian saga” concerning Walters’s final season with the show and who would eventually take control.
Setoodeh explained how Trump was the gift that keeps on giving long before he became President, and how both “The View” and ABC News benefited in the ratings, because Trump “like it or not” is the consummate showmen, providing nonstop content long before entering the world of politics.
The former reality star had a long-running public feud with O’Donnell, and he was even asked about running for president during a 2011 appearance on the show – four years before Trump actually announced his candidacy.
The “Ladies Who Punch” author went on to explain the curious relationship between Trump and Hillary Clinton dating back to 2004.
“Hillary went on to discuss opening Christmas presents with Bill and Chelsea, why she’s thinking about running for the White House. It was supposed to be a soft launch of her campaign, to see how she’s doing with these questions and sort of test how she did on the daytime show.
And that was the day that Rosie O’Donnell did her roast of Trump and Hillary’s appearance was completely overshadowed,” he said. “It’s ironic because Hillary and Trump, there are connections to them that date back to ‘The View.”
Setoodeh continues drawing the connection between the two unlikely duos sharing a table
“Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump also both attended Star Jones’ wedding and sat at the same table in 2004. The show has been this strange bridge between the two candidates, and I think that shows its cultural importance,” he said.
“The View” has always had a rotating cast of celebrities like O’Donnell, Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Debbie Matenopoulos, and Jenny McCarthy as rotating panelists that have made headlines over the years, but the politically charged Behar is without a doubt the most polarizing loon within the group.
“I think she’s really established herself as the resident liberal on ‘The View,’ having done the show for more than 20 years,” Setoodeh said. “Sometimes the politics of the other co-hosts aren’t as clear… with Joy, you always know that she is the most liberal person on the panel.”
Behar pulls no punches regarding her disdain for the President, which has undoubtedly made her a very wealthy lady, in that Trump, is very good for business — ironically keeping radical leftists like Behar and Goldberg employed long after their star power has faded.
