Meghan McCain is departing “The View,” after nearly four years on the ABC daytime show, Variety has confirmed.
As the panel’s resident conservative talking head, McCain regularly sparred with her co-hosts, resulting in many viral — and highly-rated — on-air moments.
Her last day will be at the end of the show’s season later this summer. “The View” was created by Barbara Walters in 1997, changing the TV talk show landscape.
McCain has most recently been part of the current panel of Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines. She’s the second longest running conservative co-host on the program, following Elisabeth Hasslebeck, who appeared on “The View” from 2003-2013.
A representative from ABC News declined to comment.
McCain will announce her departure on Thursday’s program. A source says that she made the decision herself to depart and that recent rumblings about on-set feuds had nothing to do with her exit. McCain’s contract isn’t up yet, but earlier this summer, she approached ABC executives to ask to be released from her deal because she does not want to move back to New York City. She relocated to Washington D.C. during the pandemic, where she and her husband, political commentator and frequent Fox News personality, Ben Domenech, are raising their young daughter, Liberty.
There is no word, at the moment, on whether McCain’s role will be immediately replaced, but “The View” is well-known for its constant game of musical chairs.
During McCain’s tenure, ratings on “The View” soared — making it the most-watched daytime talk show. The show became a major political destination in the lead-up to the 2020 election with essentially every single politician making a necessary stop at the the talk show on their campaign media blitz.
McCain’s conservative takes were magnets for attention on Twitter with her clips constantly catching fire on social media. Recently, McCain’s latest on-air feud with Goldberg went viral in June, garnering a substantial amount of tabloid attention. The tabloids would constantly speculate on McCain’s behavior and feelings on-set, which she frequently clapped back at on her own social media accounts.
“The View” shoots in New York City, but during the pandemic the co-hosts all worked remotely from different locations as the television and film industry was brought to a halt. “The View” remained in production throughout the COVID-19 crisis with most of the co-hosts filming from their homes.
McCain is the oldest daughter of the late U.S. Arizona Senator and celebrated Vietnam veteran, John McCain, who passed away in 2018 after a battle with brain cancer. McCain, who had an incredibly close relationship with her father, frequently shares her memories about him on television.
McCain has described herself as a Republican with liberal views on many social issues. She is a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and has recently dedicated much of her airtime to the staggering rise in anti-Semitism around the globe, as one of the few mainstream media figures to prioritize the topic. During her time on “The View,” she was a frequent and harsh critic of Donald Trump, making her stance on the former president abundantly clear. Earlier this year, she supported the impeachment of Trump, and last year she had a tense exchange with Donald Trump Jr. when he visited the show.
Prior to joining “The View,” McCain was a contributor at Fox News who was heavily featured on the program “Outnumbered.” She left Fox News in September 2017 after two years as a host on the network. She first gained attention by blogging about her life on her late father’s campaign trial, leading up to the 2008 presidential election. She then became a contributor to The Daily Beast and MSNBC, and in 2013, she worked as a host on various programs at the now-defunct cable network, Pivot.
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