"The View" cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin has welcomed her first child, a baby boy, with husband Justin Griffin.
Former Trump spokeswoman Alyssa Farah Griffin is on maternity leave from her current day job hosting "The View" this week and her seat was filled by the Republican reality TV star Savannah Chrisley.
Chrisley, 28, first burst on the national scene on the USA Network reality program "Chrisley Knows Best" in 2014, alongside her parents Todd and Julie Chrisley.
Chrisley evolved from teenaged reality TV heiress to one of the most recognizable conservative voices of her generation after her parents were imprisoned on fraud and tax evasion charges in 2023.
Now the nation's No. 1 daytime talk show, "The View" shed its reputation for dogfights over the past decade as cohosts on Barbara Walters' brainchild became more collegial and producers leaned further into its political past. The show's Hot Topics segment feels more like a coffee clutch among close friends than a talk show tussle.
Chrisley seemed comfortable during the four-day stint. She weighed in on backlash surrounding the new Netflix documentary "Reality Check" about Tyra Banks' alleged problematic behavior on 2000s reality show "America's Next Top Model," revealing that her family's own TV experience was partly contrived by producers.
The only notable quarrel came when Chrisley claimed that progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "is also the Democrats' pick in the next election" after the congresswoman's foreign policy flubs at a Munich summit last weekend. She was also rebuked by legal hawk Sunny Hostin for saying Trump is not a racist.
Deadline's exclusive announcement Feb. 4 announcing Chrisley among those invited for fill-in guest hosting gigs drew both boos from left-leaning "View" fans and woo-hoos from MAGA world. Her four-day "View" appearance resulted in a similar response with a surprising bout of praise from frequent Trump critic Joy Behar, who holds court on Fridays.
"I believe this is your last day though, right?" Behar said Friday, Feb. 20, before clarifying "for now, for now, you never know around here." Chrisley, in turn, thanked Behar and fellow co-hosts Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Ana Navarro for "allowing me to sit at the table." Whoopi Goldberg is always absent for Friday episodes.
How Savannah Chrisley found her seat at 'The View' table
In 2014, Todd and Julie Chrisley's complex family dynamics were first documented with their five children - Grayson, Chase, Savannah, Lindsie and Kyle - alongside paternal grandmother "Nanny Faye" on "Knows Best."
The show followed the family's lavish lifestyle in Atlanta and later Nashville with a sprinkling of patriarch Todd Chrisley's one-liners that made the Southern series a cable fan favorite.
During the first year of Trump's first term in 2017, Arizona Sen. John McCain's eldest daughter Meghan McCain joined "The View" as its conservative co-host. When Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, McCain exited the panel altogether the following year.
An extensive hosting search led executive producer Brian Teta and "View" staff to frequent guest host Alyssa Farah Griffin in August 2022. Once Trump's first term communications chief, she exited the White House after the events of Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol building.
Former "View" contributor Navarro was also named official co-host. Two months earlier, in June 2022, Chrisley's parents and reality TV stars were convicted of conspiring to defraud community banks, defraud the IRS and commit tax evasion. The Chrisleys reported to their respective federal prisons on Jan. 17, 2023.
Chrisley advocated for their release at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July 2024 and then the couple was granted a full pardon by Trump last May.
After Trump was reelected in Nov. 2024, Chrisley teased a possible Senate run in Tennessee over summer 2025. Her parents' May 28 release from federal prison led to a TV return on "The Chrisleys: Back to Reality" which aired in September.
Joy Behar to Savannah Chrisley: 'We all like you very much'
Chrisley's hosting spot fueled an outcry from fans in the comments of social media pages for "The View" with some boycotting the program until the following week. "I'll take a hiatus until next week when Savannah is no longer seated at the table!" one Chrisley critic said on Instagram.
The "Unlocked" podcast host responded on Instagram, telling "those who have sent hate" that she heard them and instead chose love "because true tolerance isn't only for opinions you agree with. It's for the ones you don't."
On the Feb. 20 episode Friday, Chrisley revealed that she told her father that Behar was her favorite. And Behar told Chrisley that "you were very good and very sweet, we all like you all very much. I'm happy to have had you here." Chrisley will be followed by fellow conservative Amanda Carpenter and "View" hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Abby Huntsman. Sheryl Underwood who formerly co-hosted "The Talk" on CBS will also join the panel.
If the show adds a new co-host later this year, could Chrisley soon find a more permanent view?