‘The View’ Goes Off The Rails As It Continues Without Writers Amidst Writers Strike

The world of television has descended into chaos in the hours since it was announced that the Writers Guild of America has gone on strike. While most talk shows are going on hiatus due to the strike, “The View” decided to try doing a show without their writers this morning.

Unsurprisingly, this did not go well, and the show quickly went off the rails.

.@TheView is LIVE — coming up this morning:

📌 Ellie Kemper talks hosting 'The Great American Baking Show'

📌 @DebRobertsABC discusses her new book 'Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life'

📌 and more pic.twitter.com/sYVfnyIrl4

— The View (@TheView) May 2, 2023

‘The View’ Tries Show Without Writers

Mediaite reported that “The View’s” moderator Whoopi Goldberg kicked off the show by explaining the situation to the audience.

“Okay. So you know how we’re always talking about how we’re very different than most other shows,” said Goldberg, 67. “As you know, there’s a writers’ strike going on, so we don’t have writers. So you’re going to hear how it would be when it’s, you know, not slicked up. Okay?”

“We don’t have writers today,” Joy Behar, 80, chimed in to emphasize. “We usually do have writers. Not like we never have writers.”

“That’s ’cause you’re not listening,” Goldberg fired back, with Alyssa Farah Griffin adding, “That’s why we need writers!”

At the top of the show, Whoopi warns that The View is not going to be funny for a while because all their writers are on strike.
"So, you're going to hear how it would be when it's, you know, slicked up. Okay?" pic.twitter.com/q9vHw7CXNJ

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 2, 2023

Show Continues To Derail 

Yahoo News reported that the rest of the show did not go well, as it quickly became clear how much Goldberg in particular depended on writers on this show. She typically has a pre-written segue to introduce each new Hot Topic, but without her writers, Goldberg was forced to improvise and come up with something to say on the fly.

Between the first and second segments, Goldberg even had to turn to the show’s executive producer Brian Teta to ask what the next topic was.

“Since we don’t have writers, what do you think is next?” she asked him.

Apparently, The View's writers were the ones keeping the train on the tracks in terms of telling them what topics they were talking about and in what order. They had to rely on their producer, Brian Teta, to tell them they were talking about ChatGPT. pic.twitter.com/Ly54W37mbC

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 2, 2023

After a chaotic episode finally came to an end, Goldberg addressed the audience once again.

“We’re thrilled you came out to see us,” she said. We’re thrilled you watched us. We hope you weren’t too freaked about the fact that we have no writers.”

“We did a show anyway because we want to keep everybody employed, and we want to do our best, and we support our writers, because we know what they’re going through,” she added.

Whoopi concluded the show by noting they "support our writers" in their striking "because we know what they're going through."
She said they went on with the show because "we want to keep everybody employed." pic.twitter.com/uydm5VTMUF

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 2, 2023

Related: Whoopi Goldberg Passes The Most Gas On ‘The View,’ Co-Host Sunny Hostin Says

WGA Strike

The WGA announced the strike earlier today, with union leaders saying that they’d tried hard to avert it.

“Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal … the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said in a statement, according to CNN. “They have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”

Thank God! 🙌
A blessing for at least a little while…

Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Maher +++ their shows have been immediately shut down following the WGA Strike against Hollywood.

The Last strike lasted 100 days… .
How long will this one… pic.twitter.com/a1h6QdDXHt

— UltraMJTruth (@MJTruthUltra) May 2, 2023

Related: Writers Strike Forces Late Night Shows To Shut Down Immediately

The last WGA strike began in November of 2007 and lasted for one hundred days.

Shows like “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” “The Late Show With Seth Meyers,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” have already announced that they will be going on hiatus and running reruns until the strike comes to an end.

After today’s debacle of an episode, the women of “The View” might want to consider doing the same thing, because they just don’t seem to have what it takes to do a show without their writers.