Sara Haines in ‘View’ again as ABC talk show co-host
For Sara Haines, “The View” has stayed much the same, but it’s also been amped up.
After a year-and-a-half on the “Good Morning America” spinoff “Strahan, Sara & Keke,” the ABC News personality has returned to her earlier role as a host of the Emmy-winning weekday program, a stop for many politicians en route to the upcoming presidential election.
Haines again shares the now-virtual table with Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain, who recently welcomed her first child — and in the current pandemic circumstances, Haines is the only one of the quintet who’s actually in the show’s New York studio.
“The voices at the table are the same ones I was with before,” the friendly Haines noted, “and I think the reason it maybe feels elevated now is everything outside of the show.
“We’ve lost conversation and we’ve lost civil disagreement, and here is a show whose very foundation is people with differences discussing things and learning from each other. I take it as a great honor to be back at this table and show people that we can do just that.”
With attorney husband Max Shifrin, Haines is a parent of three. While devoted to her children, she admits she hasn’t minded having a reason to leave home regularly again.
“Everyone wants safety first,” she said, “but with that said, there are some creature comforts to staying at home. That is the opposite for someone with three kids under (age) 4, so I needed to get out. I was more of an at-home hostage who had been released.”
The initially temporary, pandemic-themed “GMA3: What You Need to Know” became a regular series in the former “Strahan, Sara & Keke” slot.
“‘The View” was a gift I didn’t see coming,” Haines said. “I loved it the first time, and I love it and even respect it more the second time, considering the time we’re living in. I’m not comfortable in the unknown at all, so I really had to lean into not knowing (what would be) and being OK with that.”
Haines reunited briefly with Michael Strahan and Keke Palmer, with whom she was Daytime Emmynominated this year, on “The View” when they phoned in birthday greetings to her last month.
For her Season 24 “View” duty, Haines maintains she has stepped up her game: “I come off as moderate, and some people think that means I have opinions that honor both (political) sides, and that I’m really civil and peaceful … but you miss me if you’re trying to define me that way.
“This was always Sara, but this time around, I’m not going to let anyone mistake that I don’t have an opinion.”