Did the commercial broadcasting network ABC confirm the cancellation of its television talk show "The View" in March 2024 because it was the "worst show in history," as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: ABC confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim was false. The post in question was published on the self-described satire page SpaceX Fanclub. At the time of writing, neither the ABC network nor "The View" posted such an announcement on their social media channels, and no credible news publications reported the cancellation.
The claim originated in a post on Facebook on March 19, 2024 (archive), with a caption that read:
ABC Confirms Cancellation of 'The View'
Below is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Tues March 26 08:45:20 UTC 2024)
Lauri Hogan (archive), publicity director for ABC Television Network, confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim was false, writing in an email received on March 26, 2024:
This is not true. 'The View' is the most-watched daytime talk show. Season to date, 'The View' delivers its largest viewership in 3 years, ranking no. 1 in Households and Total Viewers among all network and syndicated daytime talk shows and news programs for the 4th consecutive season.
SpaceX Fanclub is a self-described satirical Facebook page created in Texas on November 16, 2020. It is categorized as a "Gaming video creator," according to its "About" page (archive). A page description (archive) reads:
We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real.
Lead Stories also examined the official social media profiles of ABC Network (X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook) and "The View" (X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook). As of March 26, 2024, neither account had shared such information on its platforms.
A search of the Google News index of thousands of information sources using the keywords "ABC cancels The View" (archive) yielded no results to corroborate this claim.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about "The View" can be read here. Lead Stories has debunked other claims related to the entertainment industry, which can be read here.
