Kathie Lee Gifford Joining 'The View'?

7:00 pm, February 4, 2021

Kathie Lee Gifford smiling in a dark green dress at a Hallmark event — (Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock.com)

Kathie Lee Gifford’s departure from Today took her out of the public eye, but according to one report, she could be rejoining the TV world on an entirely different program. Producers of The View allegedly wanted the veteran host to join their show. Here’s what we know.

Kathie Lee Gifford Planning A Comeback

OK! asked if Gifford was “ready for a comeback” after leaving Today. According to unnamed industry insiders, she’s being “lured back to showbiz by the producers of The View,” who want her to join the show’s lineup. “Kathie Lee is a familiar face and she’s strongly opinionated, so she could really make the show sizzle,” the source explained. “She’s a dream choice to join.”

Gifford, for what it’s worth, was “flattered” to be courted by the producers, but she was apparently anxious about such a major change — especially given her romance with a local Nashville man. “Kathie Lee really struggled after [her husband] Frank died [in 2015], so she’s reluctant to pack up and return to New York now that she’s found love again,” the tipster said.

Fortunately, the new love interest was as kind as he was little-known. “He’s completely supportive and insists they’d find a way to make it work. She knows these offers won’t be coming in forever, so it could be good to strike now while the iron’s still hot.”

Will She Join ‘The View’?

Gossip Cop held off on reporting on this story until we were confident in the facts. Now that some time has passed since it was originally published, it’s clear that there are a few reasons that this rumor doesn’t add up. For one, several months have passed since this claim was made and no mention has been made of Gifford’s addition or even interest in The View. The show’s current lineup of Whoopi Goldberg, Meghan McCain, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Sara Haines seems to be working perfectly well for the program’s producers.

Second, it seems like Gifford’s romance ended at some point, as she joked the past September about how she was just looking for a man with real teeth at this point. Without that tie to Nashville, according to OK!‘s narrative, she should be back on the air as a host. However, Gifford has unsurprisingly stuck to what she said she was going to do. She left Today to pursue her own films and projects, something that she’s continued to do in the years since the departure. While we’d always love to see more of Gifford, she seems perfectly happy with her career.

OK! has a shoddy record at best when it comes to TV rumors anyway. It published a bogus story about Kris Jenner sabotaging Caitlyn Jenner’s reality star career, and it even argued that Chip and Joanna Gaines were fighting over the Fixer Upper reboot. The tabloid doesn’t seem to have any real industry insiders or insight.