‘The View’: Maternity Leave Plans for Meghan McCain Revealed

Meghan McCain is currently pregnant with her first child, which means that she’ll be missing some time on The View soon. Now, fans at least have a loose idea of how the show’s producers plan to handle her absence. McCain first announced her pregnancy in March but has not publicly discussed her due date. However, in an interview with Deadline, executive producer Brian Teta said that McCain will still be on the show’s panel when Season 24 starts on Tuesday.

McCain, 35, does intend to take maternity leave at some point this season, but she will not have a formal replacement. “We will have a lot of good guests on the show and maybe a couple of surprise guest hosts,” Teta said, adding the producers want to “have every viewpoint accounted for, including the conservative side.”

As for what McCain has said about her upcoming break, she has ensured fans she has no intention of quitting the show.

“Why does everyone ask me if I’m getting fired or quitting every 20 seconds?” McCain recently said on Watch What Happens: Live With Andy Cohen. “No other host has to deal with this BS. Yes, I’m coming back. It’s an election cycle.”

Additionally, on Twitter, she endorsed the idea of former New York Times writer Bari Weiss taking over her slot during her maternity leave. Weiss penned several controversial opinion pieces for the newspaper and accused the company of “unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge” when she left the publication in July.

Regardless of who steps in, The View fans can expect a fiery, discourse-filled season. This expectation comes along with the 2020 election, which producers are called their Super Bowl.

“The election is our Super Bowl, so we are excited about our hosts covering this very consequential moment,” senior executive producer Hilary Estey McLoughlin told Deadline. “But I think that what evolves over the season — we were at the intersection of politics, the pandemic and the racial justice movement, and we’re always reflecting the national conversation, which gives you a unique position in daytime. …The focus will continue to be that as long as that is the conversation that people are having.”

Teta added, “One of the mission statements of The View was to be a reflection of the conversations that people are having in the real world. And I think in the last couple of years, the real world is starting to look a lot more like The View instead of the other way around. The real world has become a reflection of us, because even the arguments they are having on the show, they are having every day in families. As things become polarized, I think people are looking at our show, and seeing no matter what your viewpoint is, you see it on our show.”