Does a Coming Shakeup on The View Spell Change for Disney?

Television

A potential – or maybe I should say probable – shakeup at The View is making the rounds right now, but it could have bigger implications for Disney and the entertainment industry. If you’re fortunate enough to have never heard of The View, it’s a panel talk show with a group of women led by Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar complaining about anything to the right of Chairman Mao. (It actually started as a much more generic talk show despite having Barbara Walters on the panel, but it changed over the years, as every formerly entertaining talk show has.) They have been particularly vociferous about Donald Trump over the years, with the rhetoric growing more and more heated as the 2024 Presidential election neared. However, Trump won the election, and he won the popular vote as well, not to mention enabling a big Republican sweep across the board, capturing both houses of Congress (well, capturing one and maintaining control of the other). According to inside sources quoted in a New York Post article, the higher-ups at ABC News are “in panic mode” as they realize that the majority of the country is not made up of the radical left-wing nuts the entertainment industry thought, and they realize they need to appeal to normal people or they’ll sink.

Their first target is The View, which has become little more than a punchline for conservatives who need a good laugh. The hosts are not only extremely partisan leftists who make sure everyone knows it, but they’ve become increasingly unhinged. Whoopi Goldberg has said she refuses to mention the name of the man the country just elected President again, like a child having a tantrum because Mom and Dad said no more candy. Co-host Sunny Hostin attacked white women and Hispanic men for voting for Trump. (What percentage of The View’s audience do you think white women account for? My guess would be much more than Trump’s voting pool, and while the ones who voted for Trump probably don’t watch The View, Hostin didn’t throw any qualifiers into her Two Minutes Hate.) Joy Behar is, you know, Joy Behar. The point is that it’s not a welcoming environment for over 50% of the country, and ABC now realizes this, so they want the show to have a new host who is a Trump supporter. I’m sure that’ll go over like broccoli on ice cream for the current panel, so shakeups are likely coming, which will be more entertaining than anything on The View.

Sunny Hostin on the View keeps calling white women uneducated who voted pic.twitter.com/icyKTzyUZe

— Official Ohio State DG (@DylanEveryday) November 6, 2024

The more interesting question is what this will mean for the entertainment part of the company, as well as the larger entertainment industry. ABC is owned by Disney, and while the Post lays this decision at the feet of Debra OConnell (no apostrophe), the president of ABC News Group, and Almin Karamehmedovic, the president of ABC News, it’s unlikely this shift could happen if Disney’s bigwigs didn’t want it to. We all know Bob Iger is more activist than businessman nowadays, and Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden is one of Kamala Harris’ best friends, having introduced the would-be President to her husband. Walden is in charge of all of Disney’s TV programming, including the news, so she could put a stop to this if she wanted. But if she holds back and lets these reforms (which will probably be minor) happen, it’ll indicate that Hollywood executives got a rude awakening last week, and they can no longer pretend that they’re in step with the average American.

Signs of this realization can be seen in this morning’s Disney Quarter 4 earnings call. As reported by That Park Place, Bob Iger listed a slew of movies being released in 2025, including Marvel films Captain America: Brave New World and The Fantastic Four: Fist Steps, but there was no mention of Snow White, the live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This movie has had issues for some time, particularly with its star, Rachel Zegler, who is a smug feminist harpy who loves lecturing people, denigrating the classic that spawned the movie she’s making, and lording herself over everyone, including her co-stars. Yesterday, I talked about how Zegler attacked Trump voters, wishing they “never know peace.” To be fair, That Park Place notes that Iger didn’t mention Snow White in the Quarter 3 earnings call either, but this is the last one of the year, and he’s laying out the 2025 movie slate; his ignoring Snow White is a big deal, and I’ll bet it’s got a lot to do with Zegler’s latest comments. Furthermore, when a shareholder asked whether Disney would change its “ideological approach” as part of his question, That Park Place says Iger ignored that part and focused on the rest of the question. Iger also touted the successes of Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2, films which many analysts (not the big ones in entertainment media, of course) pointed out were not politically skewed, woke, or partisan in any way; in fact, Deadpool & Wolverine made fun of woke stuff that’s forced into movies.

This is far from definitive proof of a sea change, of course. But it does look like Iger at least wants to shift attention away from the politics of Disney films, and when taken in conjunction with ABC News wanting to be more inclusive of conservative views (including support for President Trump) and the report from Chris Gore of Marvel shifting away from identity politics and DEI character changes, it suggests that maybe, just maybe, Bob Iger and the rest of Disney’s bosses realize they have a political problem. Then again, Iger was supposedly the one who forced the female Silver Surfer into The Fantastic Four: First Steps, so if he has finally seen the light, the results may come in baby steps.

Let us know what you think the incoming changes to The View mean for Disney movies in the comments!

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