Can Joy Behar Save The View?

When The View’s 19th season premiered on ABC in early September, Joy Behar, an original cast member who sat on the panel for 16 years before leaving in 2013, was back as a permanent co-host. The live audience was ecstatic, cheering so much it made Behar blush. Her colleagues seemed pumped. But Behar’s return to The View didn’t feel particularly triumphant. It felt necessary: By the time last season ended, ad revenue for the once-thriving show had dropped almost 30 percent, to $64.1 million.

When The View debuted in 1997, its conceit was revolutionary. A panel of reasonably intelligent, outspoken women from diverse backgrounds—for network television, anyhow—would banter about the news. In a landscape of perky, chatty, celebrity-and-scandal-driven programming, it became a hit, drawing up to 3.9 million viewers a week in 2009, its most popular season.