Things are not what they once were atThe View, especially in the wake of the controversy involvingWhoopi Goldberg, according to a source familiar with the show.
The source believes the recent situation would be particularly upsetting toBarbara Walters, who put together the initial panel of women onThe Viewin 1997 and served as a co-host until her retirement in 2014.
“Whoopi is the alpha. She’s the moderator and a pop culture icon. This is not what Barbara Walters wanted and there was nobody there to push back,” the source adds.
Reps for ABC and Goldberg did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters.Jacopo Raule/WireImage; Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
Goldberginaccurately assertedthat the “Holocaust isn’t about race” on Monday’s episode ofThe View.
The comment came as she and her co-hosts discussed a Tennessee school board’sban of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bookMaus, which tells the story of illustrator and author Art Spiegelman’s Polish Jewish parents' experience during the Holocaust. The school board cited concerns about female nudity and profanity and removed the material from the eighth-grade curriculum.
Goldberg, who immediately faced criticism on social media, shared a statement andapologized on the showthe next day.
“I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” she said. “And I understand why now, and for that, I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and it helped me understand some different things.”
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Goldberg also provided a platform to theAnti-Defamation League(ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt during Tuesday’s episode, and he suggested the show consider a Jewish co-host to fillMeghan McCain’s vacant seat.
Whoopi Goldberg.Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
“She’s very upset and is beginning to understand the gravity of what she has done. People love her and maybe she can survive,” the source says. “It feels like the dam finally broke and the bad behavior and the things they have gotten away with for so long finally came out on camera. I hope the show can recover.”
source: people.com
