I actually went to the The View

So I went to a taping of The View yesterday in Manhattan. I will be honest about the fact that I rarely watch The View. In the past every time I turned it on I would find myself yelling at the TV about some dumb shit Elizabeth Hasselbeck said, but she's not on the show anymore so I figured it would be okay. And I kinda dig Jenny McCarthy. My friends had an extra seat so I decided to join them and overall, it was a fun time.

None of the guests were necessarily of any interest to me: Jesse Williams is pretty hot but he's on Grey's Anatomy (another show I don't really watch), Dr. Doris Day is some kind of skin care person, and I had never even heard of the musical guest Dierks Bentley before, though apparently my daughter has. However, it was actually a pretty cool show altogether.

I started the day getting up way too early and standing outside ABC studios in the freezing cold for a little bit. Then we stood inside ABC studios for what felt like forever. About a half hour before 11 (when the show was set to air live) they shuffled us into the studio to our seats. We were each given a bag of multigrain barbecue-flavored sweet potato chips - not quite as disgusting as it sounds - and a bottle of apple juice. The warm up comic who basically got us "warmed up", told us when and how to clap, and the secret code for when we're allowed to take photos during commercial breaks ("you can take photos now") was Tom Kelly.

Judge Jeanine Pirro was the guest host. Whoopi Goldberg wore some ridiculous cat-shoes. Jenny McCarthy did not look like she was feeling well - she looked great, but during the commercial breaks she seemed very unhappy - and ended up leaving early.

Jesse Williams talked about the premiere episode of Grey's Anatomy (I couldn't care less) and the "My Brother's Keeper" initiave, designed to help young men and boys of color stay in school, receive training for jobs, etc.

Dr. Doris Day demonstrated a bunch of skin care crap that I didn't pay attention to because I don't care. Then they talked about some fat-blasting machine that helped Whoopi Goldberg lose 2 inches. It looked cool but I'm hesitant about any product that helps you lose weight by laying around. I wonder if the people who have had success with this will all end up with stomach cancer someday. The audience got to go home with a bag full of products (but no weight loss machine) that I gave to my mom because I don't use that kind of stuff.

Then there was a performance by Dierks Bentley. Whoopi Goldberg came and stood right next to my friends to announce him and he sang a song from his new album "Riser". Not my type of music really, but I will admit he's very talented. The audience got to go home with a free CD that I gave to my daughter because she likes country music for some strange reason.

We took a selfie, because I need to take a selfie every day (#365feministselfie) and then we left. Got some free tickets to Katie Couric's show on the way out. Ended the day with a slice of New York City pizza and got home in time to pick up my daughter after school.

I don't know that I would necessarily ever go back to see another episode of The View, but it was an interesting experience. (I am going to try to make it to the Katie show because the guest is going to be Anita Hill.)