As The View’s resident conservative for the past four seasons, Meghan McCain’s controversy-stirring and hate-watchability were second to none, but nothing gold can stay: On Thursday, McCain announced that she’ll be leaving the job at the end of the month. The show must go on, however, and someone needs to do the important work of antagonizing Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar and by extension all of us on a daily basis. Who will it be? Here are a few ideas, ranked from the long shots to the more likely contenders, as determined by, to be completely honest, no real data other than vibes.
Chris Harrison: 1,000,000 to 1
Hey, he’s available now that he’s no longer hosting The Bachelor and its subsidiaries. But after he parted with the franchise over defending a Bachelor contestant’s attendance at a plantation-themed party, it would probably not be a great look for him to try to take a slot on what has historically been an all-female show … and ABC would probably not be very eager to hire him … however, it would certainly get people talking. (And yes, men have appeared as co-hosts before.)
Justice Stephen Breyer: 500,000 to 1
I saw this joke (ahem, I mean, interesting bit of speculation) and could not resist repeating it: Liberals want him to retire from the Supreme Court, but the justice still feels like he has more to contribute to the world, right? Hosts of The View are arguably just as influential as Supreme Court justices, so this could be the perfect exit strategy.
Ivanka Trump: 500,000 to 1
I think the producers of The View must be smart enough to know that giving Ivanka a platform to launder the evils she oversaw during her role in the Trump administration would piss off a whole lot of people and inspire a massive boycott of the show. I think.
Aaron Rodgers: 100,000 to 1
If he doesn’t get the Jeopardy! gig.
Patricia McCloskey: 100,000 to 1
Also known as one half of the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters last summer. She’s blond, she’s conservative, what could go wrong?
Elizabeth Bruenig: 100,000 to 1
She’s not a TV personality and you probably only know who she is if you’re extremely online, but this recent guest on Slate’s The Waves would make for an interesting choice because she’s a young mother and religious Christian, which is very The View, as well as a leftist, which is very not.
Alison Roman: 50,000 to 1
The cookbook author’s run-in with Chrissy Teigen, who is now in hot water of her own making, almost seems like a quaint early-pandemic memory at this point. Since last year’s hullaballoo, Roman has laid low, quietly putting out a newsletter and series of cooking videos, but in an alternate universe where she leaned into the drama instead, there’s definite View host potential there.
Amy Chua: 50,000 to 1
When you’ve become a persona non grata at the law school where you teach but your “Tiger Mother” brand remains strong, why not pivot to talk show host?
Grimes: 50,000 to 1
After going from weirdo, anti-capitalist synth-pop star to partner to a notorious tech billionaire, all bets are off. Grimes becoming a host of The View seems no more or less likely than Grimes going on TikTok to rant about capitalism and artificial intelligence, and she recently did that, so …
Miss Piggy: 40,000 to 1
I like this idea, which also came from social media, though who says The View can afford her?
Ellen DeGeneres: 25,000 to 1
After hosting her own blockbuster talk show for years, a slot on The View might seem like a step down … or it could be just the thing to get Ellen back into the public’s good graces. (Never mind that Ellen is ending her talk show after next season, meaning the timing doesn’t work out perfectly. I trust the powers that be could figure out a way.)
Kellyanne Conway: 10,000 to 1
Like Ivanka, the fact of actually having been part of the Trump administration should probably knock her out of the running.
Kayleigh McEnany: 9,000 to 1
Same as above, but giving McEnany a slight edge because she would fill not just the conservative slot but the coveted young conservative slot.
Tomi Lahren: 8,000 to 1
Another one I think is a tad too problematic to land this job, but you never know.
Caitlyn Jenner: 5,000 to 1
Jenner’s conservative politics would make her a fitting replacement for McCain, and if selected, she would break barriers as The View’s first transgender host. The question is: Does she have time to take a break from waking up the woke in her run for California’s governorship to fit in a TV gig?
Stacey Dash: 2,000 to 1
Dash was a prominent Trump supporter while he was in office, but she renounced him, and her former employer, Fox News, earlier this year. If she wants to convince America she’s really changed, getting The View would be a real coup. It’s less clear how beneficial getting her would be for the show.
Tiffany Trump: 1,000 to 1
Ivanka is likely a nonstarter, but what about the forgotten Trump daughter? She has the advantage of not carrying the stain of actually having served in her father’s administration on her record. Plus she’s young, she’s blond, her father was a prominent Republican … that’s most of what made McCain qualified right there. Still, Tiffany hasn’t proved to be great at being in the public eye, and “most forgotten sibling” is not a quality producers often seek out in a host.
Lena Dunham: 500 to 1
When you think about people who reliably inspire intense vitriol, Dunham is right up there with McCain, though for very different reasons. Dunham has strong political views and cares about women’s issues, which ostensibly would qualify her for a hosting spot, but realistically, she would be very unlikely to hitch her wagon to such an institution.
Chrissy Teigen: 500 to 1
Before her recent admission of bullying Courtney Stodden, I would have said that Teigen was way too famous. Now, though, her image could use some rehabilitation, and The View would be a good way to ingratiate herself back into the public’s heart. That said, it’s hard to picture Teigen participating in the kinds of fights that are routinely had on The View; she definitely wouldn’t be able to get through one without getting bored and pulling out her phone to scroll Twitter.
Candace Owens: 300 to 1
Like the rest of the Trump supporters on this list, Owens is probably too controversial for this role … but her status as a young, Black conservative is probably also catnip to network executives, if they could get Whoopi to go along with it.
Kristin Cavallari: 100 to 1
Cavallari, a distinguished alumna of reality shows The Hills and Very Cavallari, used to have the Hasselbeck-ian distinction of an NFL spouse, but she and Jay Cutler announced their split last year. Another distinction is that she is on the record as an anti-vaxxer (though she has to my knowledge not spoken publicly about whether that stance holds regarding the COVID-19 vaccine), so I’m guessing she holds some other views that drama-loving producers would just love to give a national platform.
Bari Weiss: 50 to 1
The former New York Times writer and editor–cum–crusader against cancel culture (who has appeared on the show as a guest host) isn’t a true conservative in the McCain or Elisabeth Hasselbeck mold, but she is exceptionally talented at pissing people off. She’s good at this on the internet, at least; it’s unclear whether a television audience would be similarly moved.
Katherine Schwarzenegger: 5 to 1
She would seem to check all the boxes: Like McCain, she’s young, conservative, and the daughter of a politician (on one side, with a broadcaster from a famous political family on the other). She’s even guest-hosted the show before. But Schwarzenegger is also married to actor Chris Pratt, raising the possibility that she’s a little too A-list for daytime television.
Megyn Kelly: 4 to 1
What has Megyn Kelly been up to lately? Sounding off about critical race theory on her podcast, naturally—but I can’t imagine she doesn’t wish she were doing so on TV instead. Sure, the comments about blackface she made in 2018, which led to the end of her multimillion-dollar contract with NBC, should probably disqualify her, but so should a lot of things she said before that.
Ana Navarro: 2 to 1
Many were quick to suggest Navarro, a Nicaraguan-born (anti-Trump) Republican political strategist who has frequently guest-hosted The View, as McCain’s natural successor. She’s not a household name so she might not be the most headline-grabbing choice, but she does seem to have an inside track and fans who support her. Whatever happens, McCain will leave behind some big shoes—and curling iron barrels—to fill.
Correction, July 2, 2021: This post originally misspelled Aaron Rodgers’ last name.
