‘The View’: Sunny Hostin Felt ‘Dismissed and Devalued’ After Getting Passed Over for a Bigger Dressing Room
Sunny Hostin took a permanent seat at The View table in September 2016. A steady presence on the show for almost five years, Hostin revealed she didn’t instantly get one of the perks most regular co-hosts receive when she first joined The View.
Sunny Hostin pointed out differences when she joined ‘The View’
In her 2020 memoir, I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and Living Between Worlds, Hostin revealed that she wasn’t given some items from the welcome wagon that other co-hosts got after becoming a full-time panelist. While former co-hosts including Jenny McCarthy and Rosie O’Donnell received formal announcements on their new post, Hostin only got a name change on The View’s website.
The slight didn’t go unnoticed by the attorney, where she noted another difference between herself and her colleagues.
“There were other examples of my being treated like a stepchild, like when it came to our dressing rooms,” she wrote. “Something that may seem trivial, but symbolically means a great deal.”
Sunny Hostin remained on ‘The View’s’ third floor for a while
Hostin explained that the permanent hosts had dressing rooms on the hub of the second floor, near the wardrobe and meeting rooms, as well as access to food. Guest hosts were given dressing rooms on the third floor. Fox News contributor Jedediah Bila and Hostin were guest hosting when Candace Cameron Bure was phasing out of her position as full-time panelist.
“When Candace left for good, Jed was moved downstairs with the main hosts, into Candace’s old dressing room,” Hostin reported. “Meanwhile, I remained upstairs in no-man’s-land, prepping, as everyone else had breakfast. The producers would sometimes have to come find me.”
With a good deal of guest-hosting seniority over Bila, The View star was stung by the slight. She interpreted it as a subtle message that she didn’t measure up to her fellow panelists.
“I felt dismissed and devalued,” Hostin wrote. “After my long history with the show, someone so new on the scene was suddenly appearing just as much as me, and now, inexplicably, she had gotten a dressing room on the main floor. In hindsight, I think that I was still having to prove myself, competing with a newcomer after I’d already shown what I could do. It was clear that they felt her voice was more valuable.”
‘The View’ suggested Sunny Hostin share a dressing room
Hostin went to producer Candi Carter about getting moved to the second floor, reminding her of Bila’s new location. Carter told her she may be relocated to room with Raven-Symoné, a panelist on The View at the time, who had a larger second-floor dressing room next to moderator Whoopi Goldberg.
“I mentioned that to Raven, and you can imagine her reaction,” Hostin wrote. “No star wants to share her dressing room. She wasn’t having that, and I didn’t blame her.”
Hostin eventually got the “third largest” dressing room on the second floor, but she felt the amount of time it took spoke volumes.
“It might seem like a small thing, but symbols matter,” The View co-host remarked. “Having a dressing room on the main floor, I believe, connotes how much you’re valued … I do feel now that I’m shown some respect, but I think the road it took to get there was longer, more winding, than it needed to be.”
