‘The View’: How Jedediah Bila Handled Being ‘Outnumbered’ As a Co-Host

Jedediah Bila joined 'The View' in season 20 alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, and Sunny Hostin. As the conservative voice on the show, Bila was often alone in her opinions compared to her more liberal co-hosts.

by Melissa Mitas

Published on November 28, 2021

3 min read

Jedediah Bila and ‘The View’ co-hosts took opposite sides in recent interview

Bila appeared virtually on The View on Nov. 16 to launch her second book, “Dear Hartley”, a series of letters to her two-year-old son that shares a myriad of life lessons. When the topic shifted to vaccination status for COVID-19, Bila detailed why she’s chosen not to receive the vaccine and cited information from the CDC. She was quickly shut down by co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin, who have publicly advocated for people to receive the vaccine. Bila noted the varying emotions connected to the hot button issue.

“People come out there from an emotional place, and I understand that,” she said on Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. “You know, we’ve seen a lot of hardship this past year. People lost loved ones, people themselves got sick. People lost businesses as a result of these lockdowns. … So many people have suffered in many different ways.”

The View alum honed in on the message she attempted to convey on the daytime talk show before getting interrupted.

“What I was simply trying to say was that these mandates don’t make any sense,” Bila explained. “People must be empowered to make these decisions for themselves. That should not be controversial in the land of the free.”

‘The View’ alum was considered the conservative voice of the show

Though Bila says she doesn’t “adhere to a party or to politicians”, she filled the role of conservative co-host on The View amongst her liberal colleagues. Though she often stood alone in her opinions on the show, Bila had plenty of practice of going against the grain.

“I was outnumbered most of the time,” she told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “It’s funny – most of the time I felt like, ‘What’s going to happen? Is this going to blow up?’ … I grew up in a house with a lot of liberals so I was kind of used to it.”

Living through several tumultuous presidential elections, Bila grew comfortable voicing her stance when it came to political issues, even when her opinions weren’t shared by others.

“I was really used to being this kind of conservative floating around with a lot of liberals,” she remarked. “A lot of my friends were liberal, so it was kind of like oddly comfortable for me.”

Jedediah Bila bonded with her co-hosts on ‘The View’

Former co-hosts Meghan McCain and Abby Huntsman have recently spoken out on The View being a “toxic” workplace. Bila credited her fellow panelists in season 20 for making her experience a positive one.

“Everyone’s experience is their own,” she told Showbiz Cheat Sheet when asked about McCain and Huntsman’s comments. “I really don’t know what happened and I know a lot of people have said that about that space. And I certainly don’t want to discredit any of that. I was lucky in that, at that particular moment in time, the people on the panel really got along.”

Bila co-hosted The View with Behar, Hostin, Sara Haines, and moderator Whoopi Goldberg during her stint and compared their disagreements at the “Hot Topics” table to family spats.

“Sunny and Sarah and I were tight,” she said of her former co-hosts. “Whoopi and Joy and I – we all had a really good relationship. And I think that that’s why for me, when I say it wasn’t toxic, it wasn’t. It felt like I was debating family members a lot of the time. … That was real. We never had a fight. Truly not one fight in that building.”

“Dear Hartley” is now on sale.