'The View': Famous Alums Returning for Season 25 Celebration in February
The View is celebrating its landmark 25th season with some familiar faces. Former co-hosts Meredith Vieira, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Star Jones will return to the ABC daytime talk show throughout the month of February to celebrate the milestone on separate dates, PEOPLE confirmed Friday, joining current panelists Joy Behar, Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, and guest host Ana Navarro.
Jones is scheduled to co-host The View's Friday, Feb. 4 show, while Vieira and Hasselbeck's dates have yet to be announced. Jones and Vieira were original co-hosts on the show, starring alongside creator Barbara Walters, Behar and Debbie Matenopoulos during the show's first season in 1997. Both women left the show during Season 9 in 2006. Hasselbeck, meanwhile, was a co-host from 2003 to 2013, and made a controversial appearance on the show in March 2020 in which she encouraged people to pray that the COVID-19 pandemic goes away.
All past The View co-hosts over the last 25 years have been or will be invited back this season, Entertainment Tonight reports, with former co-host Lisa Ling kicking off the celebrations this week after originally appearing on the show from 1999 to 2002. Other previous co-hosts include Rosie O'Donnell, Sherri Shepherd, Meghan McCain, Paula Faris, Jenny McCarthy, Candace Cameron Bure and Abby Huntsman.
When news of her return to The View broke, Hasselbeck took to her Instagram Story to address the surrounding chatter. "Will it be an honor? Yes. Will there be a curve ball? Likely. Why? I have some things to say and share. Will I finish a complete sentence or thought? likely not," she wrote alongside a winking face emoji.
The View has shaped the cultural conversation for almost three decades now, and Behar told PEOPLE its secret to success is simple. "You have a bunch of women who speak their minds and enjoy the blowback. That's our stock-in-trade," she said. Looking back on the long-running series, the 79-year-old joked, "I can't believe it's 25 years. I'm still trying to finish a sentence I started in 1997!"