Whoopi Goldberg Explains Why ‘The View’ Carries on Amid Double Strike: ‘We Want It to All Work Out for Everybody’
“The View” will continue on amid Hollywood’s now-double strike, but moderator Whoopi Goldberg made it clear on Monday morning that she and her co-hosts are “backing everybody up.”
Monday marked the first live show since SAG joined the WGA on strike, as the ABC talk show typically pre-records their Friday episodes during the summer months (SAG’s strike officially began on Friday, July 14). To kick off the episode, moderator Whoopi Goldberg explained why she and her co-hosts are still at the table, despite Whoopi herself being a SAG member.
“Like the soap operas and game shows and news shows, we work under a different kind of contract which is called the network code which means that we are allowed to continue on,” she explained. “As we’re not actors at the table acting ‘The View,’ it’s a different kind of context. So that’s why we’re still able to work.”
Whoopi added that they support the actors and writers on strike, saying “people are just trying to get a balance.”
“So that’s why we’re that’s why we’re working today. We want it to all work out for everybody because nobody wants to see folks on strike because it’s never good when you have to make a noise to say, ‘Hey, we’re here,'” she continued. “But you do it as long as you need to do it, so we’re backing everybody up.”
Though the strike rules don’t pertain to the hosts of “The View” themselves — their new code was approved back in June — it does mean that the guest list is sparse for the talk show beginning Monday. For much of the week of July 17, “The View” will be doing entire days of Hot Topics.
It’s not unusual for the talk show to do an entire episode of Hot Topics though, as there have been previous episodes without any celebrity or political guests.
When the WGA first began their strike more than 70 days ago, Whoopi explained how the show would proceed without their writers, saying “you’re gonna hear how it would be when it’s not, you know, slicked up.”
Indeed, she and her co-hosts have been hand writing their own cue cards and transitions since then, with Whoopi reminding viewers regularly that they fully support the writers and their requests for a fair contract.
