Author and podcast host Danny Pellegrino asked the hosting question — pointing out that Mario Cantone was one of the most frequent male guests on ABC’s long-running talk show “The View.” That much is certainly true, as an October 8, 2021 tweet celebrated the start of the show’s 25th season by highlighting Cantone and his “record 152 times” appearing on the show. But the remainder of Pellegrino’s question still needed an answer. “You were rumored to fill Joy [Behar]’s spot back in 2013,” Cohen read from a card to his guest. “Have they ever seriously asked or auditioned you to be a permanent co-host?”
Cantone was quick to reply with a resounding No. “That was like great press for me at the time, but no,” he told Cohen, while guest Patricia Clarkson looked on. “It was always gonna be women. That’s the way Barbara Walters wanted it and that’s the way Whoopi [Goldberg] wanted it.” He explained that the producers may have discussed it, and Page Six had reported in 2014 that Cantone was offered a job after Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy both left. But there doesn’t seem to be any truth to that rumor, and Cantone agrees that it wouldn’t have been a fit. “It’s all women, it should be, it’s a woman’s show,” he told Cohen, adding, “although I do enjoy it.”
So if Whoopi Goldberg does quit “The View,” as some reports have suggested is a possibility, we know Cantone won’t take her seat!
