What you need to know
Don’t expect Jenny McCarthy to return to The View anytime soon.
McCarthy, who co-hosted Season 17 in 2013 and 2014, spoke candidly about her experience on the daytime talk show on the Tuesday, Jan. 6 episode of the Katie Miller Podcast.
When asked if he thought he would ever be invited back as a co-host on the show, now in its 29th season, McCarthy recalled the first time he was invited.
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“The reason they wanted to invite me is because, quote, they said it was too polarizing. They thought it was too polarizing at the time, you guys,” she said.
According to McCarthy, the show originally planned to have her as a permanent panelist to provide “light, fluffy and fun” commentary on topics such as Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor.
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“Well, it lasted a week. It lasted a whole week,” she said. “At the time, I didn’t think of myself as a politician, so I thought I was perfect for the job. A week later, when they said they wanted to do politics, I thought, ‘Oh my god, what am I going to do?'”
“They said, ‘Today we’re going to talk about the hostage situation and whether or not the U.S. government should pay a ransom. And I thought, ‘What?'” McCarthy recalled. “I’m like, ‘All I know is who won on Dancing with the Stars.’ So it was really hard to get through that year.”
McCarthy said he is “much more political” now than when he was a co-host on The View because “the latest administration has been very helpful.”
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“But back then? Oh, I didn’t mean to do that, I didn’t even,” McCarthy said. “They asked me to come back for a reunion show or something like that. I wondered if I would ever step foot in that place beyond my own corpse.”
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PEOPLE has reached out to a representative for The View for comment.
