‘The View’s Executive Producer Has Apologized For The Show’s Chaotic (And Very Public) Handling Of Covid Test Results

On Friday, The View set off a flurry of headlines after co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro received positive COVID test results live on the air, moments before Vice President Kamala Harris was to appear on the show. It was understandably a calamitous scene as Hostin and Navarro were ordered to immediately leave the set while Joy Behar and the producers scrambled to kill time now that Harris’ interview was obviously going to be delayed if not scuttled altogether.

Since then, both Hostin and Navarro received several negative test results, but by that point the damage had been done. The View tackled the elephant in the room first thing Monday morning by assuring viewers that Hostin and Navarro are fine, and thanking the vice president’s staff who were extremely gracious and still arranged for Harris to be interviewed remotely. The View executive producer also apologized for the whole mess. Via Mediaite:

“We found out moments before we came back on the air, and in that moment, all I could think of was that we had to keep the hosts safe and we had to keep the vice president safe. She could not walk out no matter what,” explained producer Brian Fredrick Teta. “That led to some really awkward television that I’d like to have back if I could, but I really want to acknowledge and apologize to Sunny and Ana because, in this midst of all this chaos, they were put in this position, where they had this information put out on television, and then to make it even worse, it turned out to not be true later on.”

Despite receiving the comforting and reassuring news that they did not have COVID-19, the incident had significant fallout for both Navarro and Hostin’s personal lives. According to Deadline, Navarro revealed that she had just spent the day with Harris’ sister, brother-in-law, and niece and had to inform them of the results. “I’m Typhoid Mary and I’m going to wipe out the entire Harris family in one week,” Navarro said about the aftermath.

As for Hostin, it was an especially emotional experience as she had just attended a funeral for her in-laws who had died from COVID.

“So you could imagine how I felt, thinking I could possibly be COVID positive, and my family could experience another loss, a loss that I don’t think my husband could handle,” Hostin recalled while tearing up. “So I was relieved to say the least to find out that I was COVID negative, and I always was assured by the fact that I am fully vaccinated. And so even if I were Covid positive, I was convinced that I would likely be OK.”

If there’s a light at the end of the tunnel here, it’s that everyone on The View and the vice president’s staff are okay because the safety protocols worked. Also, Navarro absolutely wrecked Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter after he attempted to gloat about her now false diagnosis.

You gotta look for the silver linings.

(Via The View)