Producers for ABC’s The View tried to tamp down gossip about the show’s “toxic culture” by asking co-host Abby Huntsman to address the issue on-air.
A show insider told the Daily Beast that Huntsman, 33, refused to deny publicly one report that she was treated “like shit” and another detailing the show’s “toxic culture.”
“They threw Abby under the bus,” the insider said about the show’s treatment of Huntsman, who ignored the producers’ request after taking the advice of co-host Whoopi Goldberg.
Huntsman is the daughter of Jon Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China and to Russia and 2012 GOP presidential candidate who is running in 2020 for Utah governor, the office he held for two terms from 2005 to 2013. She has a daughter, two, and a twin daughter and son who will be one in June.
“She’s felt for a while that things had to change,” the insider said. “ABC treated Abby like shit, but everyone on the show gets treated like shit.”
After the co-host announced she was leaving the program, another anonymous insider claimed the executives wanted to fire her.
“Abby was added to the show without chemistry-testing with the other women mainly because she had a prior relationship with Meghan McCain and ABC was desperate to make Meghan appear more likeable,” the person said Tuesday. “But it didn’t take execs long to realize that Abby talked a lot, but she never really said anything. Her points and opinions never really landed with the audience because it often lacked substance.”
Huntsman announced her exit at the top of Monday’s episode. She will be joining her father Jon Huntsman on the campaign trail as he runs for governor in Utah.
[Related: ‘It’s bad’: Meghan McCain skips The View for ‘personal matter’ after fallout with hosts]
