‘The View’ Alum Jenny McCarthy Said She Was Prevented From Getting Other Jobs Before Being Fired: ‘It Was All a Lie’

Jenny McCarthy just started her fifth season of The Masked Singer. The Fox judge was previously a panelist on The View, though her time on the show only lasted for one year. McCarthy has openly described her experience as one of the daytime talk show’s co-hosts, including how she felt the network upended her chances at landing other opportunities.

‘Masked Singer’ star Jenny McCarthy was brought on ‘The View’ to focus on pop culture

McCarthy signed on as a regular panelist of The View in 2013, joining Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, and Barbara Walters at the table. The former Playboy model was brought on after Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck were fired from the show. Producers wanted McCarthy to bring her knowledge of pop culture to their daily conversations.

“Jenny brings us intelligence as well as warmth and humor,” Walters said in 2013, according to USA Today. “She can be serious and outrageous. She has connected with our audience and offers a fresh point of view. Jenny will be a great addition to the show as we usher in an exciting new chapter for The View.”

McCarthy beat out other contenders for the role, including Brooke Shields and Ali Wentworth. The Masked Singer judge even turned down an opportunity to host her own show with CBS after getting the offer for The View.

“How [executive producer] Bill [Geddie] sold it to me is that they actually let go of Joy and Elisabeth because they wanted to get rid of politics,” McCarthy said, as reported by Vulture. “It was polarizing. That’s the word he kept using: It was very polarizing to the audience. We want pop culture, irreverent, fun, sassy… I checked all those boxes for him.”

Jenny McCarthy thought she would be back on ‘The View’ for another season

Throughout her season on The View, McCarthy experienced more than her share of ups and downs. She grew increasingly unhappy in the job, but assumed that she was going to be asked back for season 18.

“Towards the end of the season, I was getting other offers to do shows,” McCarthy said on her radio show in 2019 in a conversation with Ramin Setoodah, author of Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View. “So my agent said, ‘Will you let us know if this is working out, because it doesn’t feel like it is, but let us know because we want to take these other jobs.’ And [ABC] said, ‘Yeah, she’s fine, we’re going to bring her back, we love her.’ ”

McCarthy alleged that higher-ups were stringing her along, knowing that they would be letting her go once the season was over.

“It was all a lie,” she remarked. “It was all a lie so we wouldn’t take the next job.”

Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd both got cut from ‘The View’

In 2014, The View did a full housecleaning of their staff which included firing co-hosts Sherri Shepherd and McCarthy. She revealed that she wasn’t the only one who had considered other professional ventures, but assumed their job on the daytime talk show was safe.

“Sherri was also looking at other opportunities,” McCarthy shared. “She was renegotiating at the time.”

McCarthy, whose 18-year-old son has autism, felt especially slighted that the network would jeopardize her employment status knowing she was a single mom.

“I go, ‘I’m a single mother with a special needs kid,'” The Masked Singer judge said. “Not that that’s a reason to keep anybody, but to keep me away from getting other work when I have other TV offers and I turn them down is really s*itty,’ which I’ve told face-to-face.”

Though she was terminated from The View in 2014, McCarthy is now finding great success on The Masked Singer.