The New View: No Big Whoop
Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters by Steve Fenn/ABC
Whoopi Goldberg has always had a wonderfully distinct point of view, and one that's probably just right for her new job on
The View. But unlike her immediate predecessor in the cohost seat, this POV is not trained entirely on herself. For me, that's a relief.
Tuesday's 11th-season opening of ABC's daytime squawk show was a pretty low-key lovefest, as the gang embraced Whoopi while catching fans up on how they spent their summer vacation: Elisabeth Hasselbeck became more noticeably pregnant, Joy Behar nursed a virus and Barbara Walters made progress on her memoirs. Elizabeth and Joy displayed family photos. And Whoopi? Didn't have much to reveal about herself (though she did sit for a pro forma taped biographical profile at the end). She's just a hardworking gal these days, spending four hours on the radio each early a.m. before heading over to the Hot Topics table.
Are these back-to-back morning gigs going to stretch her too thin? Whoopi seemed almost too laid-back on her first day in the hot seat, though still engaging and funny and, to her credit, surprising - her attempt to place Michael Vick's abhorrent dogfighting hobby into some cultural context was something I'm sure few expected to hear. I'm not saying Whoopi was tired - how would I know, but how could she not be? - and admittedly, it's not easy keeping up with Joy (who delivered most of the hour's snappiest lines) when she's really on. But the energy I was expecting wasn't quite there. Still, I have no reason to think she or
The View will suffer in the post-Rosie O'Donnell era. There will no doubt be many occasions for her politically charged hackles to rise. And her determined cool is a refreshing change from the forced heat of Rosie's "me-me-me" furnace.
I wish her well, but did anything I saw Tuesday convince me to switch my daytime devotion from Ellen DeGeneres (who now appears to be airing in the same time period in my market)? Uh-uh. I have precious little time or inclination to keep up with anything in the daytime arena, but on those rare occasions I get an hour to peek in, my viewfinder will be trained on the effortlessly enjoyable
Ellen, not the excessively gabby sister act of
The View.
