Ladies Who Punch

Book 62 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from September 10 - 16

Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of "The View"

by Ramin Setoodeh

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2019

When Barbara Walters launched The View, network executives told her that hosting it would tarnish her reputation. Instead, within ten years, she’d revolutionized morning TV and made household names of her co-hosts: Joy Behar, Star Jones, Meredith Vieira and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. But the daily chatfest didn’t just comment on the news. It became the news. And the headlines barely scratched the surface.

Based on stunning interviews with nearly every host and unprecedented access, award-winning journalist Ramin Setoodeh takes you backstage where the stars really spoke their minds. Here's the full story of how Star, then Rosie, then Whoopi tried to take over the show, while Barbara struggled to maintain control of it all, a modern-day Lear with her media-savvy daughters. You'll read about how so many co-hosts had a tough time fitting in, suffered humiliations at the table, then pushed themselves away, feeling betrayed—one nearly quitting during a commercial. Meanwhile, the director was being driven insane, especially by Rosie.

Setoodeh uncovers the truth about Star’s weight loss and wedding madness. Rosie’s feud with Trump. Whoopi’s toxic relationship with Rosie. Barbara’s difficulty stepping away. Plus, all the unseen hugs, snubs, tears—and one dead rodent.

Ladies Who Punch shows why The View can be mimicked and mocked, but it can never be matched.

My Opinion

4 stars

I've never watched The View but I follow entertainment news enough to be able to put faces with almost all the co-host names, hear a few rumors, and see a few viral clips.  Because of this I can't speak to if information in this book is new or if people that followed closely would already know everything.  

I really liked it.  The author did a good job of cutting to the chase and giving out information at a good pace.  I can't imagine the editing process when covering so many years and so many perspectives since pretty much everyone participated and the author has been writing about the show for years (so he had some real-time notes from the times things actually happened to fit in with people's memories looking back).  The book felt comprehensive but not bloated.

People sharing their lives, either by writing a book or by social media or by giving interviews/being a host, always make me wonder about the family/friends that are included in those stories and how they feel and I read two examples in the book that made me cringe a little.  I didn't have as much sympathy for the co-host talking about living with her boyfriend when his family didn't know because that's something she should've known or had time to talk to him about it being a possibility of coming out but the story of the co-host who accidentally outed someone to his parents when she said her Prom date turned out to be gay (she didn't know they didn't know)...eek.