Why Did Bill Geddie Leave The View? The Reason Is Unclear Even After His Death
It was a strange day back in 2014 when Bill Geddie, co-creator and longtime executive producer of Barbara Walter's hit ABC talk show "The View," left the series after 17 years. Despite spending over a decade working on the show, Geddie's exit was oddly quiet and no official reason was given for his departure. The mystery surrounding the end of Geddie's tenure on "The View" only magnified in the subsequent years, as the entertainer did not reveal any official reasoning for the decision, nor did any of his peers from the production comment anything concrete on the matter.
Despite the persistence of the mystery, the chances of it being solved have grown ever slimmer. In July 2023, nearly a decade after he took his leave from "The View," Geddie died at the age of 68 (via People). With the creative no longer being able to provide any further context on the situation, the public is left to speculate on what really happened back then based on circumstantial evidence and educated assumptions.
Speculation suggests Geddie's departure was due to a shake-up
Whatever speculation there is on the circumstances leading to Bill Geddie's departure from "The View," there is a general consensus that the show wasn't doing very well in terms of popularity at the time. Per a 2014 report from Variety, viewership for the talk show had been stalling around this time and it was having a difficult time beating out CBS' rival series "The Talk." The result was a major shake-up, as "The View" moved internally to the non-fiction programming branch of ABC News, gained a fresh slate of hosts, and shed many of the people previously involved in the series. That included Geddie himself, along with his fellow co-creator Barbara Walters and longtime host Sherri Shepherd.
For his part, Geddie wasn't a completely non-controversial figure. The man occasionally clashed with some of the hosts of "The View," such as Star Jones and Kathy Griffin. Perhaps most notable was his feud with Rosie O'Donnell, who alleged on a 2023 episode of "Now What? With Brooke Shields" that Geddie gave special treatment to her co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Rumors have continued to swirl about Geddie even after his death. For years, it was suspected that the producer fired host Joy Behar in 2013, though Whoopi Goldberg recently described this idea as false on an episode of "The View" itself.
Whatever the case, it seems likely that Geddie didn't leave willingly in 2014. An article from The Daily Beast reporting on the incident included information from an anonymous source who was allegedly a friend of the producer. "He didn't want to retire," the source said. "He was really angry."