The View-related stories
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 3:37PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free

First Jerry Seinfeld's wife, now a
View host.
Elizabeth Hasselbeck has been sued by another author who accuses her of stealing ideas for her book
The G Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide. The plaintiff, Susan Hassett, says she sent a copy of her own book
Living with Celiac Disease to Hasselbeck last year. And now this year Hasselbeck comes out with her own book (written with Peter Green) on the topic, and there seems to be a lot of similarities, including chapter titles and certain phrasing of words.
Gawker has some of the similarities and
TMZ has the court documents.
Posted May 21st 2009 1:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: News, Talk Show, Reality-Free

Normally I don't look forward to doing posts on
The View or Glenn Beck because it makes people think that I watch them on a regular basis.
Both, however, collided together to make a tasty train wreck sandwich when Beck appeared on a recent episode of
The View.
Co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters took the crying giant to task for characterizations Beck made of them on his radio program. Beck's subsequent chair squirming was so great, it shifted the tectonic plates and almost created a second earthquake on the Northeastern seaboard.
Continue reading Glenn Beck gets a spanking on The View
Posted May 19th 2009 2:25PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Upfronts, Reality-Free

It was inevitable. Ever since Rosie O'Donnell grew a second head and spit venom at Elisabeth Hasselbeck,
The View has been on the radar. Even without current host Rosie O'Donnell, there's been buzz with new co-host Whoopi Goldberg. Hasselbeck keeps causing trouble on the set with her lone conservative voice, Whoopi is outspoken in her own right, Joy Behar is a lunatic and even Barbara Walters has been known to snag a headline or two. Of course Lifetime wants a piece of that buzz. And to get it they're grabbing ... uh ... Sherri Shepherd?
Doesn't Sherri Shepherd think she'll fall off the edge of the earth if she goes too far? I thought she was still there because they didn't want to have to rebuild the table with one fewer chair. Huh, I guess I was wrong.
Lifetime picked up Sherri Shepherd's sitcom Sherri for 12-episodes.
Continue reading The View's Sherri Shepherd is getting a Lifetime show
Posted May 15th 2009 10:32AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Emmys, Reality-Free

They have feuds. They have babies (at least one of them). They have daily debates. But the ladies of
The View have no sway with
the Daytime Emmys. Well, that's not entirely correct. The ladies themselves, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Barbara Walters, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, received an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Talk Show host(s), but their show was snubbed.
Whether it's deemed a Talk Show/Entertainment or Talk Show/Information, it's not deemed worthy. But
The View's missing nomination is merely one of the many oddities of
the 36th Annual Daytime Emmy nominations. Something is really bizarre in the batch of noms.
Continue reading Weirdness in the Daytime Emmys nominations
Posted Apr 26th 2009 11:00AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Television has had crossover events for years, but I never expected one involving such polar opposites.
The View's Sherri Shepherd
will be appearing on next week's
WWE Smackdown in the corner of wrestler MVP.
I envision the following scenario: when she appears at the event, she will try to get between the wrestlers and get them to discuss their differences. When they stop fighting and reconcile their misunderstanding with each other, she will grab a steel chair from the side of the ring and clock MVP (or his opponent) upside the head.
Actually, that's more of an Oprah scenario, and Oprah doesn't need either the money or the ratings of a WWE appearance. Maybe Shepherd is a wrestling fan.
I cannot imagine two shows that are as different as
WWE and
The View. Totally different concepts. Totally different audiences. Do you think this news will get more women to watch
WWE or more men to watch
The View?
Posted Jan 27th 2009 4:30PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Sad news for people who enjoy blogs that are typed in all lower-case letters:
Rosie O'Donnell has stopped updating her blog. Oh the humanity, etc.
O'Donnell says she has stopped blogging because it "wasn't providing the joy that it used to." Or the Whoopi, the Sherri, the Barbara or the Elizabeth. Definitely not the Elizabeth. This all is perfectly reasonable though. Nothing Rosie has done lately (*cough*
live show on NBC *cough*) has given any joy to TV viewers either, so it's only fair that this stop bringing joy to her. But she's not shutting down her web site. She'll just post other things besides her opinions and thoughts and personal videos. Rosie.com now forwards to
RosiesBroadwayKids.org, which is a worthwhile endeavor, so kudos to her for that.
My favorite quote from Rosie about the blogging stoppage is this: "when I started to blog, no one knew what a blog was." Uhhhh, yeah. OK.
[via
TV Tattle]
Posted Jan 27th 2009 9:02AM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: American Idol, Daytime, Video, Music and Variety, Watercooler Talk, Talk Show

Well, we're not through to Hollywood just yet, as the
American Idol auditions keep on keepin' on. Indeed, as promised by the show's producers, we're not seeing as many crazies as we have in years past. However, it's safe to say that the pool of eccentric
Idol wannabes has been anything but left on the cutting room floor. That's not going to happen anytime soon.
In terms of memorable performances thus far, Von Smith has arguably been "the big breakout," at least among the contestants on
American Idol's Kansas City stop (he sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and wore a white fedora ... which, when you think about it, doesn't necessarily differentiate him from every other contestant).
Continue reading Before Idol, Von Smith was a YouTube sensation - VIDEO
Posted Jan 9th 2009 8:02AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: OpEd, 30 Rock, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free

(S03E07) Love was in the air in this episode of
30 Rock. It seems as though everyone had something going on in their personal life. Jack fell in love with his mother's nurse, Liz found a little person to fill the baby-shaped hole in her heart, Tracy and Angie reignited the spark in their marriage, and Frank, well, Frank got to watch Tracy and Angie do it on Kenneth's desk. So everyone was a winner!
Generally, I think
30 Rock does a great job with guest stars, but this season has been a little disappointing so far. With the exception of the Oprah episode, the constant stunt casting has made it feel a little bit like the last seasons of
Will and Grace. However, this week's episode, despite having three guest stars, didn't feel like that at all. Maybe it's because there were three, but they fit into the episode, instead of feeling like the episode was written around them.
Continue reading 30 Rock: Senor Macho Solo
Posted Dec 5th 2008 3:13PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free

First, take note that it's
in television and not on, because
this list from Entertainment Weekly has a lot of people behind the scenes along with people in front of the camera.
Who do you think is the smartest person in television? It's someone who created a show a lot of us watch every single Sunday night. I'll let you click on the link above to see who the smartest person is.
Continue reading Who are the smartest people in television?
Posted Oct 6th 2008 2:09PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free

I don't know if the rumors about
View host Elisabeth Hasselbeck going to Fox News Channel are true or not (Hasselbeck and the show
deny it), but at this point I wouldn't blame her one bit.
Hasselbeck has had a lot of battles on the show with her co-hosts, from Rosie O'Donnell months ago to Barbara Walters. But today was the day I actually felt bad for her. The group was talking about the election, and how nasty the election could soon get in the final few weeks (Joy wasn't on the show today, so it was Elisabeth, Whoopi, Sherri, and Barbara). After playing the funny debate sketch from
Saturday Night Live, the women discussed Governor Palin's attack on Barack Obama over the weekend, linking him to Bill Ayers (probably a desperate gambit by McCain but a fully legitimate one, I believe). Now, this has been brought up before, most notably by George Stephanopoulos in a debate and also by Hillary Clinton if I remember correctly, but the McCain campaign is bringing it up again.
So when the women discussed it, you can pretty much guess what happened.
Continue reading Hey Whoopi, Joy, Sherri, and Barbara: leave Elisabeth alone!
Posted Oct 3rd 2008 12:03PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free

Like a large number of Americans, I watched last night's vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden with great interest. And, like most Americans, I was interested in the debate for reasons other than finding out about each ticket's policy views. I wanted to see Palin and Biden screw up. Big time.
Unfortunately (heh), both did fine. Palin spoke in complete sentences that more or less made sense, even if they didn't answer any of Gwen Ifill's questions; Biden didn't ramble on or say that FDR was the president during the stock market crash of 1929. But I don't know if you can attribute this debate's gaffelessness on the poise of the candidates alone. The format of the debate was so restrictive, it didn't give either of them time to go off on screwy tangents.
Wouldn't it have been better if both could just sit in a couple of chairs and speak freely? You know, like on a talk show?
Continue reading Why can't debates be more like talk shows?
Posted Oct 3rd 2008 9:25AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Reality-Free

Obviously, this is in the "rumor" category, but
Elizabeth Hasselbeck might be leaving The View for Fox News. It's probably just a stunt anyway to get a higher salary. It's not likely there aren't other women of conservative ideologies in the world who couldn't replace her. If it does end up being true, it would be a mistake for her to leave.
Even if you don't agree with her views, the mainstream publicity of her on-air feuds (such as the one with Rosie O'Donnell that made Rosie leave the show and
start her own variety show. Let's blame Hasselbeck for that one) make for great ratings. Actually, she represents a demographic of woman that could stop watching the show if she leaves.
Naturally, I'm not what you would call an avid fan of
The View. Quite the opposite. In fact, if I go to Hell when I die, I'd likely end up in the audience of
The View. But even I recognize a bad career move when I see one. At Fox, Hasselbeck would be one conservative voice among many. On
The View, she is unique.
Posted Jul 20th 2008 1:03PM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Casting
A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.
The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.
This time we have Rock of Love, Family Court and a lot of new shows.
Continue reading Reality show casting calls
Posted Jul 15th 2008 8:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free

It was an historic occasion
yesterday last Thursday on NBC's
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, didn't you know? The lady who lives to be banned -- and re-banned in the case of
The View --
Kathy Griffin appeared as Jay Leno's guest. What's the big deal?
Well, if you recall the first season of Kathy's show, Bravo's
My Life on the D List, the comic was rather brutally insulted by Jay when he called her ugly, and in the subsequent episodes of the show, Kathy revealed that she was put on
The Tonight Show's "do not invite list."
And yet, the other night, there was Kathy in the prime seat, chatting it up with Jay, dissing celebrities as is her wont, and generally looking like the D List is now just the title of her show, not her true show business status.
Continue reading Kathy Griffin welcomed on Leno, ends Tonight Show ban
Posted Jul 4th 2008 9:20AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free

In what has got to be the funniest news article I've read today, Rosie O'Donnell compares her time
as one of the hostesses of The View to prison rape. The comment was made while O'Donnell appeared at Cyndi Lauper's True Colors tour in Vancouver (Yes,
Cyndi Lauper still tours).
She uses the specific example of the movie
Born Innocent starring Linda Blair. There's a scene involving a broom that doesn't need to be described any further. Needless to say, it was very graphic and quite controversial at the time. Out of curiosity, does this comparison make Barbara Walters the evil warden character?
Continue reading Rosie O'Donnell raped by The View
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