Star Jones' Messy Exit from The View Has Barbara Walters Spinning
Who can forget Jones' brief tenure as a red-carpet hostess on E!, when she stopped celebrities on their way into award shows to chat about herself?
Where would we be without the drama of daytime television?
I'm not talking about soap operas. I'm talking about the tumultuous world of morning news programs and talk shows.
ABC Daytime's The View has been at the center of a media firestorm this week, following an on-camera upset that was surprising only in its timing. That's because everyone saw the writing on the wall
for Star Jones, a co-host of The View since its launch in 1997 who left the show two days ago.
It had been clear for some time that Jones' days were numbered. Rumors had been swirling for weeks with the same intensity as the "Katie Couric is Jumping to CBS News" buzz that for months predated Couric's departure from NBC's Today. Certainly, View co-host, co-creator
and co-executive producer Barbara Walters fueled that fire in May with her high profile announcement during ABC's live telecast of the Daytime Emmy Awards that Rosie O'Donnell, an outspoken critic of Jones, would be joining The View in September, filling the chair vacated by co-host Meredith Vieira, who was leaving to fill the chair left by Couric at Today, who did indeed move over to CBS, just as those long-running rumors said she would.
But while the departures of Couric and Vieira from their respective programs were handled with dignity and respect for the stars and their shows and their viewers alike, Jones' sudden departure from The View this week has been an uncomfortable mess for a number of people, particularly Walters. While I'm not a fan of Jones, I have never felt misled by her, except perhaps
in the matter of her weight loss, which is of no particular importance to anyone but the woman herself, no matter what O'Donnell would have us believe. (O'Donnell has very publicly criticized Jones for not admitting to a gastric bypass, claiming Jones could not have lost the amount of weight she has during the last two years through diet and exercise alone.) I believe Jones to be an honest person, if not always a likeable one. Indeed, Jones has never misled anyone with
functioning eyes and ears into believing she is anything other than a grand diva, from her endless chatting on The View about her lavish lifestyle to her controversial wedding, elements of which, it has been reported, were contributed by various companies in exchange for her mentioning them on the show. And who can forget her brief tenure as a red-carpet hostess on E!, when she
repeatedly stopped celebrities on their way into the Emmy Awards and Golden Globes to chat about herself and her fiancé and invite many of the stars to appear on The View? Jones even spoofed her own red carpet behavior in a commercial on E!
Listening to Walters spin the sorry situation this week, after Jones' surprise announcement Tuesday on The View that she was indeed moving on, I think the blame (if not the shame) for this mess goes more
toward the legendary powerhouse of ABC News (and her network colleagues) than the former talk show host and red-carpet queen.
Consider Walters' comments on Wednesday's edition of The View about Jones' announcement that she would not be returning to the show in the fall (or, as it turns out, after Tuesday). "We didn't
expect [Jones] to make this statement yesterday," Walters said. "She gave us no warning and we were taken by surprise."
Star Jones Reynolds
So far, so good. But let's remember … Walters' announcement that O'Donnell would be joining The View seemingly took Jones by surprise, too. At the very least, the fact that it came in the middle of a
big exciting live primetime telecast had to hurt. Turnabout may be unpleasant, but it is fair.
"The truth is that Star has known for months that ABC did not want to renew her contract and that she would not be asked back in the fall," Walters continued. "The network made this decision based on a variety of
reasons which I won't go into now. But we were never going to say this. We wanted to protect Star."
Huh? If nothing else, Jones is a strong, formidable woman who wouldn't appear to require special protection. Would Walters
have us believe Jones is in truth a delicate hothouse flower or a dainty lace doily?
"We told [Jones] that she could say whatever she wanted about why she was leaving and that we would back her up," Walters explained. "We worked closely with [Jones'] representatives and we gave her
time to look for another job. We hoped she would announce it on the program and leave with dignity."
Hmmm. Although the timing of her farewell came as a surprise to her cohorts, Jones' remarks Tuesday didn't exactly
seem undignified. She in fact heaped praise on Walters and the others.
If ABC and Walters have known since late last year that Jones' contract would not be renewed, some effort should have been made to politely show Jones the door at an earlier time before the situation became ugly,
and certainly before the announcement of O'Donnell's impending arrival, an especially sore subject for Jones. I don't know the details of Jones' contract, but such early departures are negotiated all the time in the television business, to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.
Meanwhile, even though everyone involved this week has been made to look rather silly, they will all likely come out on top. The View is suddenly receiving more publicity than it has in years, and the arrival of O'Donnell and, presumably, a replacement for Jones in September will infuse the show
with new energy and excitement. (The rumor mill is rolling at full steam again, and the name that keeps coming up for Jones' replacement is Oprah Winfrey's high-profile pal Gayle King. Given the accuracy of recent rumors about daytime's biggest stars, don't dismiss the possibility. For what it's worth, I think King would be a great choice.)
As for Jones, it will come as a huge surprise if we learn that she did not have a specific reason for making her exit from The View in so seismic a style. Plainly she has something planned and wanted to
generate as much publicity as possible as a warm up to an even bigger announcement, as befits a diva of her magnitude. Hey, she didn't do a bad job subbing for Larry King on his CNN show a few weeks back. She'll be King's guest on the show tonight, offering further insights into her situation.
