‘The View’: Debbie Matenopoulos Claims Barbara Walters ‘Church Pinched’ Her When She Slipped Up

The View creator Barbara Walters struck fear in Debbie Matenopoulos when she was one of the co-hosts at the iconic table. Matenopoulos was nervous to sit next to Walters at the table, but also grateful to have worked for her. In a recent interview, Matenopoulos recalled how Walters would quietly “church pinch” her under the table every time she slipped up on camera.

The experience was so stress-inducing that she was relieved when she earned a new seat, away from Walters, at the table. Matenopoulos also revealed how one of the scariest on-camera experiences became a valuable learning moment in her career, thanks to Walters.

Debbie Matenopoulos recalled how Barbara Walters ‘church pinched’ her under ‘The View’ table

The View producers knew that Walters was pinching Matenopoulos nonstop under the table.

So, “They moved me because they were like, she can’t sit here and get the church pinched by Barbara all the time. So halfway through the season, I think I sat in between Star (Jones) and Joy (Behar),” she said on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast. “That’s where they moved me. And I used to be between Joy and Barbara.”

When she was moved, “I was very, very happy,” she admitted. “Also because I was stressed sitting next to Barbara. I was super stressed out, thinking ‘My gosh, even if she’s not giving me the church pinch, I hope I’m sitting correctly,'” she said. Adding, “‘I hope my outfit’s OK. I hope that stress does not help you perform in any way.'”

“You would get so caught up in your head,” she said. “I mean, forget the stress of America telling you who you are and what you did wrong, what you did right every single day, immediately after the show because it was a live show.”

“And you trying to be the representative or the voice for an entire generation. I mean that’s a lot of pressure. And then you have Barbara whose show it is. So the inner turmoil was real. Let me be honest with you.”

What valuable lesson did Debbie Matenopoulos learn on ‘The View’?

Switching seats on The View didn’t mean that Matenopoulos was out of Walters’ line of sight.

“One time I remember Barbara when I was walking out on stage, I don’t know if I told this in the book, but she took my cards – we all had cards. She ripped them up and threw ’em away,” she recalled. “She threw ’em and said ‘You’re much better without cards baby. You don’t need these cards.’ I was so scared. It was like walking on a high wire without a net underneath you.”

“And I remember walking out,” she recalled. “The blood rushing out of my head. And [I] just sat there for the first like two minutes, not saying a word. Just kind of smiling, thinking I better say something because you know, we’re on live TV.”

But she managed to lean into the learning experience and made a revelation.  “Then I just started listening to the conversation and believe it or not, it was probably the best show I ever did. So there’s a lesson in that. Maybe tough love,” she said. “But again, I was used to tough love. My parents told me not to come home if I didn’t finish college.  There was tough love in there. But I will never have a better teacher in my life than Barbara Walters.”