“American Idol” may be responsible for launching the careers of several music superstars, but according to “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg, it can also be credited with “the beginning of the downfall of society.”
Goldberg’s comments came on Wednesday morning, as the women of “The View” were discussing Netflix’s new documentary on Anna Nicole Smith, and why — or even if — the documentary needs to exist.
“I think that we, as a society, love to watch stuff to judge folks,” Goldberg argued.
In fact, the moderator even went so far as to peg the moment in time that that started happening.
“You know, I’ve always thought that the beginning of the downfall of society was with, um, what’s the name of that show?” she said, turning to executive producer Brian Teta for an assist. “I always tell you that.”
In response, he supplied “ABC’s ‘American Idol’?” prompting immediate laughter from both the audience and the other women at the table, considering the fact that ABC is, of course, also the network on which “The View” resides.
Goldberg immediately clarified that “American Idol” was not always an ABC show, which is true. The first 15 seasons of the competition series aired on Fox, before ending in 2016. ABC picked up the revival with new judges in 2018, and it has been running on the Walt Disney Company network ever since.
“Once we gave people the ability to judge other people, I think we ran amuck with it,” she added. “And it’s gone out of control.”
Host Joy Behar still wasn’t clear on what Goldberg meant, so she pressed her colleague further.
“They invited the public to decide who their person was,” Goldberg explained. “And I feel once we did that, it began us in a cycle which we have not — did you really just do that?”
It’s unclear what exactly “that” was, but Goldberg was clearly talking once again to Teta, who was not onscreen as she spoke. He tried to interject and say that “American Idol” is “better now” for Goldberg, and that she likes it, presumably because it now belongs to her own parent network.
Reps for “American Idol” did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
