The Real Reason Jenny McCarthy Left The View
While people today might know Jenny McCarthy best as a panelist on "The Masked Singer" and as the wife of Donnie Wahlberg, she's accomplished a huge amount in the entertainment industry over the course of her career. Though McCarthy initially hoped to pursue a job in the medical field, according to IMDb — even attending Southern Illinois University to study nursing and psychology — she was forced to drop out due to financial reasons. She then turned to modeling, becoming hugely famous in the '90s for her status as "Playmate of the Year" in 1994.
After moving to Los Angeles, McCarthy got her start on-screen, hosting her own talk show and starring in her own sitcom in 1997. In the decades since, she's scored roles in movies like "Scream 3" and "Scary Movie 3," as well as TV shows like "Two and a Half Men" and "Bad Girl's Guide." In 2013, she booked one of her biggest gigs to date, as co-host of "The View." After one season, however, the TV personality's stint on the talks how ended. What went wrong?
Jenny McCarthy's introduction to The View was met with criticism
Jenny McCarthy's introduction to "The View" was met with a great deal of negative press. In fact, in July 2013, Time even published a piece titled, "Why ABC Shouldn't Have Hired Jenny McCarthy." And things only seemed to get worse from there.
In a 2019 interview with Vulture, McCarthy recalled, "I was a nervous wreck. I just let go of my own talk show in Chicago. I had signed a one-year contract with 'The View.' Now I'm dealing with all this bad publicity and I have to feed my baby." She also opened up about the relationship between co-hosts, likening it to the cutthroat competition show "Survivor." "There were allies, and there weren't many people to choose from," the former Playboy model noted, discussing the conundrum of siding with Barbara Walters or Whoopi Goldberg. It was clear that Walters and Goldberg didn't get along with McCarthy, she told Vulture. In fact, things were so incredibly tense with Walters, McCarthy claimed, that the veteran host would criticize her outfits and even accuse her of making a mess in the bathroom.
As McCarthy explained, the powers that be at "The View" tried to veer the topics on the show away from pop culture and more to politics, which didn't sit well with the star. She also claimed that "they wanted Elisabeth [Hasselbeck] back, and I wasn't Elisabeth."
In 2014, just a year after McCarthy was first hired as a co-host, she was fired from the talk show.
Jenny McCarthy was the 11th co-host on The View
Jenny McCarthy described her 2014 firing from "The View" like a brutal scene from "Game of Thrones." After all, it wasn't just her who was let go — it was countless others as well, including Sherri Shepherd and show creator Bill Geddie.
" ... I call it the Red Wedding at 'The View,' the day there was like 17 people let go," the actor recalled on her own SiriusXM series, "The Jenny McCarthy Show." "[Plus 'The View' creator] Bill [Geddie] and ... five other producers or something like that." Discussing Geddie, McCarthy revealed the strong empathy she felt for the head honcho losing his job. "To watch someone like that be kind of shoved out the door after creating the show with Barbara the way they did...," she said.
Furthermore, McCarthy claimed that before she was fired, ABC lied to her about keeping her on the series — and because of this, she said no to other work opportunities. Interestingly, her dismissal was met with a relatively benign reaction from McCarthy herself. "I was only there a year, I knew it wasn't really my place to be," she said. "The way they handled everyone's firing was, I think, unprofessional. Terribly unprofessional."
Fortunately, McCarthy has found plenty of entertainment opportunities since then — including her well-known role as a panelist on "The Masked Singer."