Joy Behar

To me, The View feels like the ultimate indulgence. Perhaps that's because of its daytime slot and I'm afraid that watching TV in the middle of the day proclaims, “Yes, I am lying on the sofa watching TV and not working all day.” The show also rarely fails to entertain me, with its heady mix of actual important issues, silly celebrity interviews, and random smatterings of musical performance, style tips, and cooking segments. It’s what I wish mainstream women’s magazines were.

But it also happens to have a revolutionary aspect as well. Only American Idol rivals its racial diversity (whoa, three people of color on a four-person judging panel?) and no TV show rivals its diversity in age and race. Of the five regular co-hosts, four are over 40. Three are well over 50. Two are over 70, y’all. Did you realize Joy Behar is 70 and Barbara Walters is 83?