Abby Huntsman returns to ‘The View’ with old wounds and a new seat at the table
On a weekday morning in Eastern Time, abby huntsman is once again at “The View” table, stepping into the guest-host role during Alyssa Farah Griffin’s absence and rejoining a panel that helped define a turbulent chapter of her public career.
What is Abby Huntsman doing on “The View” this week?
Abby Huntsman is serving as the latest guest host filling the chair in Alyssa Farah Griffin’s absence. She is back at the table to dissect “Hot Topics” with Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Ana Navarro, and Sunny Hostin.
Her return is also a reunion with a format she knows well: the fast-moving conversation and the pressure of live reactions. The show’s leadership remains clearly defined in the official credits: “The View” is executive-produced by Brian Teta and directed by Sarah de la O.
Why did Abby Huntsman leave “The View, ” and what did she say afterward?
Abby Huntsman previously cohosted “The View” from 2018 to 2020. She left to become a senior advisor to her father, Jon Huntsman Jr. , during his 2020 campaign for the governorship of Utah, which he did not win.
After her exit, Huntsman spoke publicly about her experience on the show. In October 2021, she launched the “I Wish Somebody Told Me” podcast and explained that she felt the program no longer reflected her values, describing a system that rewarded “bad behavior. ” She said she believed the environment was driven by “money, ” “ratings, ” and “tabloids, ” and called the show “toxic. ”
She described her departure in physical terms that signaled more than a routine career change: “When I was walking out of the building that day, I was living again. I could breathe and feel myself breathing. I was present, and I hadn’t been present for the almost two years I was there. ” She also characterized her father’s campaign role as “a great out” to leave.
In a separate conversation on a “Behind the Table” podcast episode, she said she felt “pressure” to make “newswaves, ” arguing that everything became about a soundbite and who could be the most “bombastic” in the moment. She said she felt “trapped” by expectations from producers to “fit in that box. ”
What does Abby Huntsman’s return reveal about the show’s culture and the demands of live debate?
Abby Huntsman’s return lands in the space between two realities: the show’s continuing role as a daily arena for headline-driven argument, and her own prior insistence that the incentives behind that arena can distort behavior. Her critique was not aimed at a single disagreement but at a culture she said rewarded conflict and heightened rhetoric.
At the same time, her own reflections show she sees the pressures as contextual, not fixed forever. She later suggested she might have fit better in an earlier era, saying, “I actually think I would have been perfect on The View in 1998, ” when she felt the show was more about the women and their lives and why they were different. That framing points to a broader tension in televised discussion: the difference between conversation built around lived experience and conversation built around constant reaction.
Her guest-host stint also illustrates something else: the ability of live television to pull past narratives back into the present. The table doesn’t only discuss the day’s “Hot Topics”; it also carries the history of who has sat there, who left, and why. Whether the week plays as closure, contrast, or simple routine, the fact of her presence makes her earlier statements part of the moment—without requiring her to repeat them.
Who else is appearing on “The View, ” and what’s next for the lineup?
The program is continuing to book a range of guests, including politicians and authors who will discuss current and upcoming projects and topics relevant to today’s world. For the week of March 23, the guest list includes Amanda Peet and Sen. Cory Booker. Additional scheduled names mentioned for the week ahead include Luke Bryan, Lionel Ritchie, and Carrie Underwood.
For viewers, this mix matters because it reinforces what the show is trying to be at once: a celebrity stop, a political microphone, and a daily conversation engine powered by disagreement and personality. Within that structure, a returning former cohost can become its own kind of booking—one that invites attention not only to what is said, but to what has been said before.
How the story circles back to the table
In the end, the striking detail is that the table remains the table—same setting, same ritual of “Hot Topics, ” many of the same faces—and yet the meaning shifts when a former cohost returns carrying words like “toxic, ” “pressure, ” and “relief. ” This week, abby huntsman is not just another guest host; she is a reminder that television conversation can leave marks long after the cameras cut, and that returning to the scene of an old decision can test whether the room has changed, or whether the person has.
