The View Opens Season 30 With Best Premiere Week in Six Years

The View has opened its 30th season with its largest premiere-week audience in six years.

The ABC programme averaged 2.518 million total viewers for the week of 7 September, up 8% on last year's 2.324 million, according to Nielsen data reported by Variety. That is the show's best premiere-week total since the 2020-2021 TV season.

The season opener itself did the heavy lifting. The episode on Tuesday, 8 September averaged 2.607 million viewers, just ahead of last year's 2.602 million. It was the most-watched season premiere episode since 8 September 2020.

Younger women viewers moved up more sharply. The week averaged 208,000 women aged 25-54, up from 174,000 a year ago, and 173,000 women aged 18-49, up from 151,000. Those are the programme's best premiere-week results in three years among women 25-54 and four years among women 18-49.

The numbers are Live + Same Day, meaning live viewing plus playback by recording or on-demand later that same day. They come from Nielsen Media Research's Big Data + Panel measure, which blends large-scale device data with its panel homes.

Season 30 began with a "Let's Re-View" recap, then welcomed Ted Cruz and Lizzo on 9 September, Sherri Shepherd on 10 September and Maisie Williams on 11 September. The returning panel is Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro.

The run is a rare one in daytime. The View debuted in August 1997 and airs on ABC, according to Good Housekeeping. Ahead of the milestone season it was ranking No. 1 in households and total viewers with 2.466 million viewers, as reported by People. The main show is executive produced by Brian Teta and directed by Sarah de la O, with companion series The Weekend View overseen by executive broadcast producer Robin Hommel.

What makes this stand out is the age of the format. Thirty seasons means a large organised crew and writers' room still producing daily television. This start keeps that story running.