Star Jones Hatred Universally Beneficial
Satisfied that their nine-year Star Jones infestation has effectively been dealt with, the last of the festively striped fumigation tarps tented around The View's studios were dismantled by workers and the lady chatfest quickly went back to business as usual. Interestingly enough, the week following Jones' departure, which saw a rotation of guest hosts including Brandy and Susan Lucci, had some of the show's best ratings in years:
ABC is reporting that for the week of July 3, talk show The View had its best-ever ranking in women 18-49, its key demo.[ ...]
The View tied for fourth place in daytime for the week of July 3 with a 1.5 rating/10 share. That's an average audience of 980,000 women 18-49, up 8% from the week before and up a tenth of a rating point from its season average of a 1.4/10 (880,000) in the demo. It has been two and a half years since the show was ranked in the top five, says ABC.hosts.
ABC makes no mention in their announcement of Star's absence, but few could deny that it was the main reason for the increase in viewers. (It remains ambiguous whether they turned up for the controversy, to catch the replacements, or merely to show their anti-Star solidarity.) Jones, meanwhile, lifted ratings 36% guest hosting HGTV's House Hunters. It's a promising sign for Jones, who may find herself in hot demand by other lifestyle programs looking to get their own ratings boost by keeping her around for a few months, then messily firing her on live TV using some variation of the theme, "our research shows no one can stand you."
