The view is finally clear once and for all after the ABC daytime television show gave its audience the green light to remove their face masks as the three-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic approaches.
Hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin all acknowledged the smiling faces of the audience during Monday’s episode from the desk with spectators in front of them no longer wearing masks.
Audiences have been required to wear face coverings since the show returned to the studio in 2021, with Friday’s episode being its final day.
“Look at you sitting here with no masks on,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg exclaimed as the audience applauded. “Wait a minute now. So I’m talking, and in my mind, I’m going, what’s different about this audience? And then it hits me. No masks. Because I saw your smile and I saw your teeth. It is awesome. Well, yes, we’re going back to where we were.’
Hostin also noted that it was the “first day” without the mask mandate, while co-host Sara Haines added that it was “nice to see their faces.”
The audience mandate for masks on ABC’s The View has finally been lifted, and the hosts acknowledge the change on Monday’s show
“Look at you sitting here with no masks on,” exclaimed co-host Whoopi Goldberg as the audience applauded on Monday’s show
On Friday’s show, the audience still appeared to be wearing their face masks
It’s not clear why The View chose to lift their masking mandate on Monday, though this month the state of emergency in New York, where the show is filmed, finally ends.
Also on Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he wanted to completely ban face masks in stores after criminals appeared to be using the coverings to avoid being identified when they commit crimes.
Back at The View, actor Brendan Fraser joined the hosts to discuss his film, The Whale, and also noticed the change of mask.
“It was a movie made in the time of COVID. My hope is that as we look back over the next few years at the movies ever made between 2019 and 2022, there’s some sort of secret ingredient to all of them. And I have a theory, I think it was because we cared even more about each other while we were working. Because we should have been home.
‘We can’t live like this. And it’s nice to see your beautiful faces again. I’ve been in a lot of houses and crowds lately anyway, and it’s not escaped my mind that we can get together and do this again,” Fraser said.
Members of the public pictured during Friday’s show were all fully masked
Spectators of The View have been fully masked since returning to the studio in June 2021
Show had required audiences to wear masks since returning to the studio in 2021, but on Monday the hosts noticed audiences were maskless
Onlookers seemed extremely happy now that they are no longer wearing masks
The View had taken an alarming approach throughout the pandemic, whether it was wearing a mask or exaggerating the seriousness of the virus to children.
In one case, led by Goldberg, the hosts defended Broadway performer Patti LuPone in May 2022 after she stopped a performance for yelling at an audience member during one of her shows for not wearing a mask.
“You don’t want to contaminate the people on stage who aren’t wearing masks,” Goldberg said in LuPone’s defense. “Just do it right.”
In 2021, two co-hosts, Hostin and co-host Ana Navarro, were forced off the set after testing positive for COVID-19 midway through the show, just before an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. TheOur results ended up being false positives.
One of the younger presenters, Sara Haines, stated she would rather see her child wearing a mask than a “respirator,” while co-host Sunny Hostin also vastly overestimated the child death toll when she suggested last year that “1 percent” of young people who got the virus died from it. The mortality rate for children under the age of 18 was then 0.008 percent.
Behar was photographed dining out with her friends without a mask and also reportedly left the restaurant without her mask
The Post Millennial editor-in-chief Libby Emmons posted the photos to Twitter Friday, calling out the liberal commentator for her hypocrisy about masks
Last month, co-host Joy Behar was hit by another storm of hypocrisy after she was photographed exposed in a the city of New York restaurant hours after crowing about her plans to wear one indefinitely on national television.
Behar, 79, stated she would remain masked despite the ever-changing guidelines.
“Personally, I listen to the little voice in my head that doesn’t really follow 100 percent what they tell me because they keep changing it,” Behar said in February.
But her flakiness was exposed by The postmillennial just hours later, after Behar wagged his chin with friends at a banquet at a New York restaurant.
And one source even claimed to reporter Libby Emmons that Behar had walked through the unmasked restaurant as her party left – despite her friends being happy to cover it up.
After seeing Behar’s unmasked photos, Emmons said, “Joy Behar said she would mask herself in public places ‘indefinitely’ because it’s just not safe. Except last night at this restaurant, apparently.’
She added, “I’m told she also walked out of the restaurant unmasked, though her companions dutifully wore theirs.”
Behar has not broken any rules, with New York recently dropping a strict mandate requiring customers to show proof of vaccination before being allowed to eat at restaurants or visit other indoor leisure facilities.
But the comedienne had pretended she intended to go beyond such requirements.
“So when I go on the subway, when I go on the bus, when I go to the theater…. a crowded place, I would wear a mask, and I could do so indefinitely. Why do I need the flu or a cold? And so now I listen to myself. I don’t think it’s 100% safe yet,” she said.
