13 hours ago
Kathy Griffin reveals shock confrontation with Barbara Walters over turning down million dollar job offer
is opening up about a shocking confrontation with Barbara Walters when she was guest-hosting on The View.
Walters created the daily talk show and was a fixture on the panel alongside Joy Behar, Meredith Viera, Star Jones and Debbie Matenopoulos when the show debuted in 1997.
While Walters left the panel in 2014, she remained as an executive producer until her passing in December 2022 at 93.
Since the original lineup, there have been a slew of guest hosts, one of whom was Griffin, who guest hosted from May 2007 to September 2007.
She has said many times in her stand up comedy routines that she was 'banned' from The View, and now she's explaining why.
Griffin, 64, filmed a new video for her YouTube page this week, where she revealed Walters was not pleased after Griffin turned down a permanent hosting spot.
She began the video by calling Walters a 'bad-ass journalist' and added she, 'loved doing that show.'
She said she co-hosted the show 'something like 27 times,' adding she was flying from Los Angeles to New York City each time.
'They pay you scale and stuff but they don't dress you and they don't pay for makeup outside the hair and makeup room and they're already so busy and over booked and all that stuff,' she added.
'So eventually I said to my agent "Okay tell them if they're going to offer me a permanent chair please tell them to just offer me the chair or not." But I keep flying out there and they're trying out new hosts so much that I'm like I'm done auditioning did I get the job or not?"
She added, 'So they made me an offer and the offer was for $1.4 (million) and I am just going to be honest i had to turn it down, because at the time between doing My Life on the D-list and touring I was making about 10 a year.'
'So I had to turn down The view because I would have had to uproot my whole life. My mom was still alive and my dad might have still been alive actually and I didn't want to leave them and my mom and dad didn't want to get on airplanes anymore so there wasn't a situation where I could have brought them with me and it was a whole thing,' she added.
Griffin continued, 'I remember when they offered me the job Barbara Walters said backstage one time before we were about to go out and do the live show, "They say we have chemistry i don't really see it but they say we do," and I loved that. I said "Of course we do Barbara people love when I give you s**t." And then she just roll her eyes.'
The comedienne added that she waited until she had a private moment with Walters to tell her in person that she turned down the offer.
'It was important to me that I pull Barbara aside and I said, "I want you to know why I'm going to say no. It's not that I think I'm too good for the show, it's the opposite; the show is too good for me,"' she said.
'It was important to me that I pull Barbara aside and I said, "I want you to know why I'm going to say no. It's not that I think I'm too good for the show, it's the opposite; the show is too good for me,"' she said.
'I'm going to be honest, this is how much money I made last year. I will show you my tax returns. I don't want you to think I'm blowing smoke.'"
While she cited a number of variables like moving costs and the home she owns in Los Angeles, in the end, Walters was not pleased.
'She did not like that one bit. She didn't care, they didn't up their offer by a penny. I think I might've said something like, "Can you meet me halfway?" And they didn't.'
She claimed to be banned from the show but would return sporadically, including a 2009 appearance where she got into a spat with Elizabeth Hasselback, which she claimed got her 're-banned,' even though she did appear on a March 2024 episode as well.
