The View premiered on August 11, 1997 with Tom Selleck as their first guest. The original set was actually a leftover set from a cancelled soap opera, The City. ABC didn't commit to their own set until their fifth season. It is produced and videotaped at ABC's television studio on West 66th Street in New York City, and is the first and only show on ABC's daytime schedule to broadcast in high definition. It airs live on the east coast Monday-Thursday, and is on tape most Fridays.
A New York Times review, published ten days after the show premiered, describes what critic Caryn James thought was distinctive about the show:
“ The idea of women talking to one another on daytime television is not exactly radical. The idea that those women should be smart and accomplished is still odd enough to make The View seem wildly different. It actively defies the bubbleheads-'R'-us approach to women's talk shows.... ”
After a year on the air, a review of the show from Salon.com attempted to summarize what had made the show a "(very guilty) pleasure" for its mostly female audience:
“ The View has caught on with viewers because it gives expression to feelings more complicated, and real, than its detractors realize. Like the Rat Pack, it's all about freedom in an uptight world. Vieira, Walters, et al., have confessed to a lot of things on the show that women are supposed to feel guilty about: forgetting to vote, being too lazy to exercise, hating skinny models, letting the kids watch too much TV, admiring Hollywood's latest hunk. And, apparently, they don't care what people think. Look, I'm not holding them up as role models. And I'm not saying they're representative of the death of feminism, or the rebirth of feminism, or anything like that. I just like the way they don't give a damn. If the Rat Pack was Everyman's id, The View is Everywoman's. These chicks do it their way, and are very inspirational to all women. ”
The show premiered with four co-hosts: Meredith Vieira, Star Jones Reynolds, Debbie Matenopoulos, and Barbara Walters. Walters and Joy Behar initially took turns as the fourth co-host, an approach that at least one TV critic considered disconcerting:
“ The comedian Joy Behar, who appears on the days when Ms. Walters is off, is truly funny but hasn't blended in yet; at times it seems as if a Joan Rivers clone had parachuted in. ”
Behar soon became a regular co-host, with the panel expanding to five when Walters joined in. The subsequent opening credits for the show, featuring voice-over from Walters, made the show's premise explicit:
I've always wanted to do a show with women of different generations, backgrounds and views: a working mother; a professional in her 30s; a young woman just starting out; and then somebody who's done almost everything and will say almost anything. And in a perfect world, I'd get to join the group whenever I wanted
On the May 23, 2007, episode of The View, O'Donnell and Hasselbeck became engaged in a heated debate. The debate that day followed on from a discussion earlier in the week in which O'Donnell noted that 655,000 Iraqis have died since the United States invasion and asked "who are the terrorists?"
O'Donnell asserted that Hasselbeck was "cowardly" for not answering whether she believed O'Donnell thinks of American troops as terrorists. O'Donnell also complained of how the media would portray her as a "fat, lesbian, loud" bully attacking "innocent pure Christian Elisabeth" whenever they disagreed on air. O'Donnell stated that she believed Republican pundits were misinterpreting her statements, and had asked Hasselbeck if she agreed with them. Hasselbeck claimed that she knew Rosie didn't think that US soldiers were "terrorists" but told O'Donnell that she needed to "defend herself" as it was not her place to defend O'Donnell's controversial statements.
When the debate continued past the five-minute mark, guest co-host Sherri Shepherd tried to cut to commercial break. O'Donnell silenced the effort by saying "No, no, no we're not. No because we have a lot more time." Minutes later Behar endeavored again to end the argument by interjecting "Is there no commercial on this show? What are we on, PBS? Who is directing this show? Let's go to commercial!" The show cut to commercials shortly afterwards, ending the debate.
This was O'Donnell's last broadcast. On the May 24 episode, comedian Kathy Griffin sat in for O'Donnell who took the day off to celebrate her partner Kelli's birthday. On May 25, ABC announced that O'Donnell had asked to be let out of her contract nearly a month before its expiration and was given permission to leave immediately.
Whoopi Goldberg to take Rosie O'Donnell's spot on 'The View'
Two days later, in a press release, O'Donnell said she bore no ill will towards Hasselbeck and said that she "loves all three women". However, in her blog, O'Donnell stated she had not talked to Hasselbeck, and that she was in shock and "stunned" that Ms. Hasselbeck had brought up Donald Trump, with whom O'Donnell had publicly feuded. She later posted a video on her blog discussing her future relationship with Hasselbeck and in a subsequent blog post stated that "I haven't spoken to Elisabeth, and I probably ever won't". O'Donnell also attempted to restate the controversial comment that had caused the feud with Hasselbeck saying, "the cowards who sent r [our] troops to this war . . . those men r [are] the terrorists."[62] According to ABC News, O'Donnell said that she knew her time on the show was over when she saw the exchange reported in the news media with the split screen effect showing her and Hasselbeck on either side. ABC News also reported that O'Donnell's arguments with Hasselbeck brought the show its best ratings ever.
While the number of viewers was higher than the year before O'Donnell joined the show, in the month following her departure, viewership was down by an average of 232,000.
A variety of different names were floated around as replacements for O'Donnells during the tenth season's final months. Among those reportedly considered to replace O'Donnell were Whoopi Goldberg, Gayle King, Sherri Shepherd, Kathy Griffin, Roseanne Barr and Mario Cantone. On August 1, Barbara Walters ended speculation when she announced that Whoopi Goldberg would be replacing O'Donnell as moderator for the show's eleventh season. When asked by Joy Behar if she liked engaging in celebrity feuds, Goldberg responded by saying she has no plans to feud with any of her co-hosts.