The View cancels annual Halloween episode, cohosts won't do costumes
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Joy Behar called the Halloween episodes "annoying," adding, "we need to use every single minute on this show to inform the public about how dangerous" Trump is.
By Joey Nolfi
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Updated on October 16, 2024 10:40AM EDT
This Halloween, the scariest thing you'll see all season is... well... what you won't see on The View.
Like that unseen entity wafting through the show's airspace, the cohosts' costumes, as part of the show's fan-favorite annual Halloween episode, won't be visible to the naked eye, as producer Brian Teta revealed Tuesday on the Behind the Table podcast that the show will not roll out a 2024 Spooky Season installment.
"I'm going to announce something today that's going to upset a portion of the audience, but I think it's going to make you happy," Teta told Behar on the podcast. "This year, because it's only a few days before the election and we need to be live, the hosts are not going to dress up for Halloween."
Whoopi Goldberg; Sara Haines; Joy Behar
Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar on 'The View' Halloween episode. ABC (3)
Behar observed that "we've done it every single year for 28 years" and that "it's always annoying for us" as cohosts, but she savors moments that have come from the episodes in the past, including iterations that saw the show's late creator-cohost Barbara Walters dressed up as an alien, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn through the years.
In the past, there were a few years that The View didn't dress its cohosts up in Halloween costumes, including most recently in 2020. Entertainment Weekly has learned that the cohosts will still acknowledge the holiday this year, but won't be in costume for the occasion.
"They're iconic, it's great, I'll try to bring it back next year," Teta continued, citing the show's sustained importance as a platform for political opinions and guests — particularly during election years. "The problem is, those shows are a huge undertaking, we have to do them on tape. Part of what our show has become and what it is right now, we can't be on tape three days before the election."
In addition to regularly warning the public about the dangers of a second-term Donald Trump presidency, Behar and her cohosts have welcomed a revolving door of high-profile political guests to the Hot Topics table in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election, including Liz Cheney, Hillary Clinton, Vice President (and Trump's election opponent) Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden, among others.
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"It's too important," Behar concluded of cancelling the 2024 Halloween episode. "I don't mean to be grandiose, but we do have some influence on people's thinking. We need to use every single minute on this show to inform the public about how dangerous [Trump] is."
Quipped Teta: "It's hard for you to do that while dressed like Pinocchio."
Behar famously dressed as "Pinocchio Trump" for Halloween several years back, with her nose growing longer every time she said Trump told a lie.
Whoopi Goldberg warns Donald Trump's hour-long musical rally 'should freak everybody out'
The show's cohosts regularly dress up in elaborate costumes, with the 2023 edition marking some of the wildest getups to date. Conservative cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin dressed up as Princess Jasmine from Aladdin; Ana Navarro walked out to the set as Mirabel from Encanto; Behar donned a wig as Cruella de Vil from Emma Stone's Cruella; Sara Haines wore heavy prosthetics as Carl Fredricksen from Up; Sunny Hostin also endured a lengthy makeup process in head-to-toe blue paint as Neytiri from Avatar, and moderator Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show as Barbie from Toy Story after crashing the set as the Headless Horseman.
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