Brian Teta, the executive producer of The View, has signed a new contract for the show that will keep him at the often buzzy daytime talker for the next four years.
The show has been up 3% in total viewers season to date, and has continued to top daytime talk shows and news programs in viewership and households. There are signs of an election-year influence in the uptick: The day after the Iowa caucuses, when ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl guested, the show’s 2.85 million viewers was its most watched telecast in nearly two years.
“Every time there’s a big moment in the news cycle, whether it’s the State of the Union, or a Republican debate or anything like that, I see a spike the next morning, even in pop culture world where it’s something like the Oscars,” Teta said. “People are tuning in to see our hosts react to the news of the day, what’s going on in the political cycle. If there’s some thing that former President Trump puts out on Truth Social, I can look at the minute-by-minute ratings and see that people are there in the morning, to see how Joy, Sunny, Alyssa, Sarah and Anna react to it.”
One of the recent viral moments came last week, when co-host Sunny Hostin had an exchange with Coleman Hughes, the author of The End of Race Politics.
Deadline spoke with Teta about the show’s impact and the 2024 campaign. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
DEADLINE: I’m sure you saw the situation with NBC and [former RNC chair] Ronna McDaniel. How do you represent the Trump side? And how much of an issue is that to the show?
TETA: We’re part of ABC News, but I always look at us as the op-ed page. That’s kind of how we fit into that larger picture. And I think it’s important to have all voices at our table that the audience can see themselves in, or see a perspective of, or understand perspective they don’t have. The great thing about Alyssa Farah Griffin, who joined almost two years ago now, is she worked for the Trump administration. She was in the room at a lot of key points that were we’ve been talking about. So I think while she’s not a Trump supporter, she has an understanding of the appeal of Trump. She has an understanding of Trump voters. And she can speak to that often. … When she was auditioning here, she had said to me [that she is] somebody who looked at Donald Trump, and … she saw somebody who was different, and she saw the appeal of that. And then she got close enough to realize, this is not the way. This is not somebody that should be leading our country. And she feels like she can speak to Trump voters in that way too.
DEADLINE: Would you have on as a guest a [Trump] true believer, maybe even McDaniel?
TETA: You know, I have to look at it. It’s interesting. The way we book the show, the way that we’ve figured all this out, it’s always kind of a conversation where we consider what’s best for the show and what the conversation would be like with the co-hosts. There’s nothing really off the table, which is one of the great things about the show. But we kind of consider every opportunity individually. During the Trump administration, we had Don Jr. on and Kimberly Guilfoyle. So we’ve had all sorts of people on. Donald Trump has been on the show many times before he was president. Even in the first election process, he was here in 2015 [for a phone interview]. But we made the choice not to consider election deniers when we did our co-host search. The disinformation part of it is something to consider always.
DEADLINE: How would you deal with an election denier now as a guest?
TETA: I would think we would correct and fact-check in real time, if we had those situations. And we’ve done that before, when we’ve needed to make corrections. Our hosts are all very knowledgeable and read up. Even though we’re an opinion show, we’re governed by news standards, so we would call out anything like that in real time. It’s a challenge on a live show, certainly, but our hosts are up for it.
DEADLINE: Given that we’re getting further and further into the election year, are you considering having Trump or any of his surrogates on the show?
TETA: Again, it’s case by case. We’ll see who the VP is, when they’re announcing. We’ve invited Trump to join us at the table for both 2016 and 2020 elections, and he declined, and at a certain point, we stopped asking. So I don’t anticipate that changing. I think he’s pretty familiar with how the co-hosts feels about him and doesn’t see himself coming here.
There’s no question we reach an important audience. This season we had Tim Scott on. We’ve had prominent Republicans on often and will continue to. We had Ted Cruz on last year. That’s what the show is. That’s the genius of what Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie put together here, a show of different perspectives. And I think that it’s an important thing for us to do that. But at the same time, we’re not going to put people on there to [spread] misinformation.
DEADLINE: How about Joe Biden? Do you think he will come on the show given that the vice president recently did?
TETA: I do. I expect he will. We were the first stop after he announced his 2020 run. We had the first interview with him after that. He was made history as the first sitting vice president to do a daytime talk show here. So yes, I think he will be on. We’re in contact with the White House. We don’t have anything to announce yet. But my hope and really my expectation is that he’ll be here during the election.
DEADLINE: How about someone like Robert Kennedy Jr., who has an independent bid?
TETA: It’s possible. I think doors are open. It’s just always about what’s best for the show and the hosts. Nothing is off the table.
DEADLINE: [As she ran for president] did Nikki Haley ever come close to coming on the show?
TETA: We invited her often. She didn’t come on the show. Certainly would have loved to have had her. I’d still love to have her, actually.
DEADLINE: She criticized the show at one point.
TETA: So have many people who have shown up on the show later.
DEADLINE: When you get that type of criticism, do you think it helps or does it hurt the show?
TETA: I don’t know if that helps or hurts the show. The View is always someplace that people like to talk about. Every single day, no matter what the hosts say or do, there’s dozens of headlines afterwards. And I think politicians are aware of that, and sometimes like to make some headlines of their own by talking about us. It speaks to the relevance of the show, frankly. But I always want to have people physically here. I’d always rather talk to someone directly than talk about them. So I think it’s great to have them here.
DEADLINE: As you as you look in the next couple of months, what what can we expect in terms of political guests more political discussion?
TETA: I started here in 2015, so this is my third election at the show. And this is really when The View thrives in my opinion, in a presidential election year. I’m hoping for debates that they can react to. Obviously the build up to the conventions. The VP announcement on the Republican side. We had the VP on this season already. I’m hoping she’ll return. I’m definitely looking forward to having the president here, various surrogates from both sides I’m hoping to have on.
DEADLINE: I think last year was the first time in some time there was no major change in the co-host lineup. Do you expect that going into the next season?
TETA: There’s no announcements to make right now, but my expectation is we’ll have the same table next year because it’s working. This is our fourth [year] in a row we are the No. 1 show in daytime. And I was looking at it today, we are actually the second most-watched talk show period on network television, behind only Colbert. We are really having a moment for The View. I think it’s a credit to this table.