Did the set for ABC's talk show "The View" burn down amid the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the show told Lead Stories that the program has always been based in New York City. The website where the rumor appeared describes itself as specializing in "Satire and Parody." The image in the social media post was "100.0%" likely made with AI, according to an AI image detector.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on January 10, 2025. It showed an image of a fire burning and a store-style sign that read:
ABC'S THE VIEW SET BURNT DOWN IN MASSIVE LOS ANGELES WILDFIRE, HUGE LOSS FOR SHOW
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jan 21 21:39:58 2025 UTC)
The caption on the post read:
Massive Los Angeles Wildfire Engulfs ABC's The View Set, Show Faces Fiery Fate
The image has a clear label in the top left corner that reads, "RATED SATIRE."
A spokesperson for "The View" denied the claim to Lead Stories via email on January 21, 2025, saying that the set is not in Los Angeles and has been in New York City since the show began in 1997.
In the post's comments, the creator of the post linked an article from Esspots.com (archived here). The headline was the same as in the image with the claim. The article gives specific details about the Los Angeles wildfires' destruction of the set:
The fire, which began in the Pacific Palisades area, spread quickly across the city due to high winds, dry conditions, and extremely hot temperatures. Authorities were able to confirm that *The View*'s set, located in a studio complex near the fire's path, was one of the many properties destroyed in the blaze. While no one was present on set at the time of the fire, the loss of the set is a significant blow to the production, which has been a central part of ABC's daytime lineup for years.
The "About Us" page of the Esspots.com website has this disclaimer (archived here):
Welcome to the US page of Esspots (A Subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News), your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America. Our team of writers and editors is dedicated to bringing you the latest and greatest in fake news and absurdity, all with a healthy dose of humor and satire.
At the very end of the article, in bold, a sentence read, "Note: This is SATIRE, It's Not True." Evidence of this is seen in the screenshot below. Highlighted by Lead Stories:
(Source: Essports.com website screenshot taken on Tue Jan 21 21:45:32 2025 UTC)
Putting the image in an AI image detector like the DeepFake-O-Meter, created by the University of Buffalo, showed two detector tools assessed the image was "100.0%" likely to be AI generated. Evidence of this can be seen in the screenshot below:
(Source: DeepFake-O-Meter website screenshot taken on Tue Jan 21 21:43:11 2025 UTC)
A Google News search of keywords related to this claim did not yield any evidence that confirmed the claim (archived here).
Websites such as imgflip.com (archived here) can be used to easily create memes with images and signs like the one in the post that is the focus of this fact check. Another Lead Stories fact check debunked a similar claim that showed a fake sign with the message, "Whoopi Goldberg's Home Burnt In Latest Los Angeles Wildfire, Damage, Estimated In Millions," on a sign as this screenshot shows:
More Lead Stories fact checks regarding the show "The View" can be found here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the Los Angeles wildfires of January 2025 are here.
