Kathy Griffin Reveals Barbara Walters Once Banned Her From The View

Kathy Griffin has navigated a career filled with both triumphs and setbacks – and was once even prohibited from appearing on The View by Barbara Walters.

Griffin, 65, disclosed this information during a Monday, December 29, conversation with Maury Povich. “I’ve been barred and reinstated [on The View] on numerous occasions,” Griffin stated. After Povich inquired about her current standing, she responded, “I believe I’m currently allowed back on, but one can never be certain – the spirit of Barbara never truly leaves me.”

In June 2025, Griffin revealed she was presented with an opportunity to become a permanent panelist on the popular daytime program but declined it because she was too occupied at the time. “They extended an offer to me, and the sum was $1.4 [million], and I will be frank, I had to refuse it because, at that point, between working on My Life on the D-List and performing live shows, I was earning roughly $10 [million] a year,” she explained.

However, Griffin expressed only positive sentiments toward the show, which has consistently enjoyed significant popularity over the years. “I genuinely admire those women for participating in that show day after day, knowing there would be repercussions,” Griffin continued. “And, by the way, to this day, The View remains one of the most talked-about programs on television or anywhere.”

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“People continue to become agitated online discussing what was said on The View, so it has always been a high-pressure show,” she also said.

Walters created The View in 1997 and served as one of the show’s cohosts until 2014. She passed away several years later in 2022.

“I recall when they offered me the position, Barbara Walters mentioned backstage once before we were about to go live, ‘They claim we have chemistry, I don’t particularly see it, but they say we do,’" Griffin said. “And I loved that. I replied, ‘Of course we do, Barbara, people enjoy it when I tease you.’ And then she simply rolled her eyes.”

Griffin also mentioned that she assured Walters that she wasn’t too successful to join the show.
“I want you to understand why I’m going to decline,” she said she told Walters. “It’s not that I think I’m above this show, quite the opposite: this show is too prestigious for me.”

Griffin has faced considerable controversy throughout her career. In 2015 she abruptly withdrew from plans to replace Joan Rivers on E!’s Fashion Police. She confessed to Howard Stern in March 2015 that accepting the role was likely a misjudgment.

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“I don’t truly feel it was my finest work, to be honest,” Griffin said before adding that she felt compelled to take the job. “Melissa [Rivers] was the one who contacted me and said, ‘You’re the only person that I believe my mother would have approved of.’ For me, Fashion Police doesn’t represent Joan’s legacy. As a 54-year-old female comedian still active in the industry, what Joan accomplished was far greater than that.”