Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner has taken a sharp jab at her daytime TV competition, The View, following her unexpected ratings win against the long-running ABC talk show. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Faulkner, 59, openly criticized The View hosts, including Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, and Joy Behar, accusing them of resorting to “shouting” and “cussing” to generate attention, describing their approach as “vitriol” and a “myopic” worldview. Her pointed remarks follow her show, The Faulkner Focus, surpassing The View in ratings for the first time, in what was considered a significant upset.
Faulkner’s Ratings Upset Over The View—A Significant Milestone
In January 2025, The Faulkner Focus garnered 2.55 million viewers, edging out The View, which pulled in 2.51 million. This marked the first time Faulkner’s show—which airs on Fox News, a network with a smaller potential audience compared to ABC—surpassed The View in terms of viewership.
For Faulkner, this was a surprising achievement, as The View has long been a dominant force in daytime talk shows. Speaking candidly about the success, Faulkner didn’t shy away from criticizing her competition, particularly the manner in which the hosts approach their discussions.
“On The View, there’s this sort of, shout it, cuss it, do whatever you gotta do to get a little more attention around the hot topics,” Faulkner told DailyMail.com. She continued, adding that the show’s hosts often engage in a “shout-fest” in order to drum up views, something she believes diminishes the conversation.
The Faulkner Focus, seen here in an exclusive interview with President Trump, received 2.552million viewers in January, edging ahead of The View’s 2.508million – de-throning the long-running ABC show
Faulkner’s Criticism of The View Hosts: A ‘Myopic’ Worldview
According to Faulkner, one of the biggest problems with The View is their narrow perspective. She accused the show’s hosts of adopting a “myopic” approach to the world, one that limits meaningful conversation by only presenting one side of an issue. Faulkner argued that their approach lacked depth, offering little more than “shouting” and “vitriol” to keep viewers engaged.
She also expressed her belief that The View’s reliance on pre-taped episodes gives it an unfair disadvantage when it comes to staying relevant and nimble with the news cycle. “We’re live, we’re not on tape. This is not hard,” Faulkner remarked, emphasizing the flexibility that live TV offers, particularly in today’s fast-paced news environment.
Faulkner, pictured with her husband Tony Berlin, appeared on The View in 2018, promoting one of her books about the life lessons she learned growing up as a ‘military brat’ to her Army Airman, Vietnam veteran father
Speaking about her 2018 appearance on The View, Faulkner said Hostin came after her and showed a picture of her biracial children on the ‘digital wall behind me. They switched the conversation away from the book and made it about race’
During her own appearance on The View, Faulkner, who is black and married to a white man, said she was perturbed when Hostin brought up her race
During her appearance, Faulkner, who is black and married to a white man, said she was perturbed when Hostin brought up her race – but said Goldberg was ‘gracious’ and brought the conversation back round to her book.
‘Sunny Hostin came after me, they had put a picture of my biracial children on a huge digital wall behind me, and she took the conversation to race,’ she said. ‘I knew my kids would be watching.
‘Whoopi goes, ‘You know what, let’s talk about the book.’ And I appreciated that.’
Controversies on The View include Goldberg in 2022 claiming the holocaust was not about race. Years earlier in 2010, she defended Mel Gibson saying he is ‘not a racist’ despite reportedly using the N-word and making anti-Semitic comments.
In 2015, guest co-host Kelly Osborne got in trouble for saying ‘If you kick out all the Latinos who’s going to clean your toilets?’
In one episode, Behar revealed she dressed in blackface when she was younger.
And on camera in a 2023 show, Goldberg asked co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin if she was pregnant when she was not.
Faulkner said she believes her Fox News show’s ‘superpower’ is that it’s live, not pre-taped like The View, as well as having guests with diverse political views.
The Fox host covered the controversial Worcester, Massachusetts council meeting where transgender activists yelled at the public podium on her show the day of her interview with DailyMail.com
DailyMail.com was on set as Faulkner hosted two shows, called on sources to contact her about federal workers’ access to retirement and exchanged emails while at her desk
‘I think that’s difficult to do if you only see the world myopically, and that’s the feeling that I get when I watch other shows, The View as an example,’ she said.
‘That isn’t to say that they don’t have people on with different opinions, but the shouting is coming from the left on that show.
‘It looks like one of those anti-DOGE meetings or the hearings on Capitol Hill. Democrats right now are apoplectic and they’re shouting and they’re cussing at us.’
Faulkner was comparing The View to the scenes at a Worcester, Massachusetts council meeting on February 11, where transgender activists yelled angrily at the public podium and city leaders voted in favor of making the town a ‘sanctuary city’ for the trans community.
The Fox News host covered the raucous and controversial meeting on her show the day of her interview.
Though her comments suggested The View is not live, the ABC show usually is broadcast live, though sometimes airs pre-taped shows or repeats.
For example, in March last year, Entertainment Weekly reported the airing of a ‘pre-taped’ episode ‘before live shows kick up again’.
The show advertises itself as typically having ‘Live broadcasts five days a week’.
And while Faulkner Focus did beat The View in January’s ratings, ABC pointed out that one of the weeks included in the viewing data was when The View was showing repeats, not its usual live shows.
The channel also defended its show, saying it ‘continues to rank number one in Households and Total Viewers’.
A network source noted that The View is an opinion show ‘with the mission to have dynamic conversations from diverse points of view.’
‘This is what the audience expects from The View and they are showing up. The show continues to rank number one in Households and Total Viewers,’ the source added.
Faulkner has been outspoken about her opposition to some transgender activism, including her belief that transgender women should not compete in women’s sports.
‘I have an elite athlete in my family, my youngest daughter, who just wrapped up eight years of her young life, competing at an elite level in gymnastics,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘She won her final competition, a huge regional, in January. We weren’t expecting it, but she won a gold medal for the vault. We’re really proud of her.
‘The sport would be very different if there were biological men who could compete against my daughter.
‘I want her to be safe. And I want her to feel like her best accomplishments matter, and that the competition itself is fair.’
Faulkner said her other daughter, Bella, who turned 18 in December, is planning to attend college in the fall.
She said Bella was ‘remarkably confident’ in her political opinions – though she did not disclose what those were.
‘Bella knows who she is and she’s remarkably confident about for whom she’ll vote,’ Faulkner said.
‘She wants to study early childhood education, and with a specialty in children who are challenged and need extra love and support.’
But Faulkner did let slip that Bella became more interested in the politics of the tax system after the teen got her first paycheck.
‘She’s working and she sees taxes being taken out, and she’s like, ‘Well, what’s this going to?” the mother of two said.
The Fox News anchor said she fears for her ‘biracial, ‘ecumenically-raised’ daughters’ as they are biracial and Jewish
‘She is a fan of Doge because she’s like, ‘I want tax efficiency’.’
The Fox host, a Baptist Christian, is married to former TV reporter-turned-media consultant Tony Berlin, who is Jewish.
She admitted to fearing for her biracial, ‘ecumenically-raised’ daughters after seeing recent outbreaks of anti-Semitism on school campuses, but said that she believed in leading by example.
‘As a person of color, and as a person who speaks boldly about faith, it’s very adjacent when people are hated for the way that they believe, and their position in society,’ she said.
‘Am I more worried about them standing out for their hair texture and their skin color or their faith? I’m worried about all of it. And not just for my kids.
‘I really think it’s important for Jewish children on campuses to know that they have partners, that the hate on the campus is a microcosm compared with the love that’s out there.
‘That is necessary, I think, to kind of diffuse the hate that we have seen on these campuses.’
Faulkner has been snatching as much family time as she can before her two teens fly the nest. That includes a surprise trip to Hawaii last year, launched before dawn like one of her father’s military excursions.
Faulkner at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel. She told DailyMail.com that she fears her daughter will face anti-Semitism on school campuses since their father is Jewish
Faulkner is a Baptist Christian who is married to former TV reporter-turned-media consultant Tony Berlin (left), who is Jewish
Faulkner has been outspoken about her opposition to some transgender activism, including her belief that transgender women should not compete in women’s sports – particularly because her youngest daughter Danika (middle) is a gymnast
‘I said, ‘Hey, girls, wake up.’ It was five o’clock in the morning,’ she chuckled.
‘I ordered on Amazon backpacks and hiking shoes for the whole family. You could only take one bag. There’s no makeup in that bag. We were on the ground for 50 hours. We had a whole plan. Oh my gosh, it was the best time.’
Faulkner’s husband and daughter Bella at a prayer vigil for Israel in October 2023
Faulkner described herself as ‘Type A’: liking to be in charge, senior in many areas of her life, including in age to her husband.
‘I’m a cougar. He’s a little younger than I am,’ she said, laughing and apologizing to her Fox PR handler.
She added that Berlin knows her well enough to know she doesn’t want a surprise for her upcoming 60th birthday, and would instead prefer another family getaway ‘off the beaten track’.
She said her family meetups with the Faulkner clan of ten cousins in Dallas, Texas were as low-key as her vacations, describing them ‘like a tailgate meets a TikTok fit check’.
‘We just have so much fun. We don’t talk about my job,’ she said.
The TV anchor said among many lessons from her late parents, she learned leadership from her father and self-care from her mother.
The anchor’s father Bobby Harris was a lieutenant colonel in the Army and implemented rigorous expectations of leadership and responsibility in his children
Faulkner’s upbringing of having a father (top-right) in the military and a mother (top-left) who worked as a social worker taught her to maintain a daily routine and self-care
‘My father was military, and there were expectations of leadership in my household, and I was given responsibilities at a very early age, so I’m really comfortable with that.’
‘But I also had a mom who was a social worker, and she knew self-care and wellness before these were buzzwords.
‘As a very young child, I would see my mom with mayonnaise on her face, her hair up in a hot towel with olive oil all in it. She was taking care of her skin.’
Faulkner said her own daily routine involves waking up before dawn and slinking down to the ‘man cave’ in her home for some quiet, alone time to brief herself on the day’s news, before the onslaught of the day.
‘It’s got several TVs in that space, and kind of looks like a mini newsroom,’ she said. ‘I bet my kids would call it the sitch space.’
Later in the morning, she gets a car from her New Jersey home to Fox News’ Manhattan headquarters.
DailyMail.com was invited behind the scenes of The Faulkner Focus set there on February 13.
Faulkner appeared a few minutes before going live at 11am, striking a powerful silhouette in a lilac dress with capelet-style shoulders and complementing purple four-inch heels.
As her staff buzzed around her, she sifted through pages of annotated documents and asked producers in her earpiece for updates on the tally of Senate votes for RFK Jr.’s confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary, which reached the threshold of 51 live on air during her show.
After her hour-long show, she joined Kayleigh McEnany, Emily Compagno, Kaylee McGhee White and Jason Chaffetz on the sofas of the Outnumbered set downstairs.
Among the day’s topics for the team was Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency targeting a limestone mine in Pennsylvania used to store federal workers’ paperwork, where retirements were reportedly being held up because the elevator was so slow.
Speaking to DailyMail.com in her office after the two shows, Faulkner sought to demonstrate the power of live TV.
During Outnumbered, she had called on federal workers to contact her if their retirement had been delayed.
Minutes later, she was scrolling through emails at her desk, as accounts from government staff and their spouses poured in.
‘People are sending me their file numbers. This woman’s husband passed away after 40 years of civil service. ‘I’ve yet to receive my survivor benefits… He passed away in October of last year,” she said.
Turning from her computer, the anchor made one final dig at her competitors at The View.
Final Thoughts: A Growing Rivalry in Daytime TV
Faulkner’s recent ratings upset signals a changing tide in daytime talk shows, particularly in terms of how news is presented and discussed. With The Faulkner Focus’s live format, dynamic conversations, and varied viewpoints, it offers a refreshing take on the genre—one that’s gaining momentum and slowly **challenging the dominance of long-running shows like The View.
As for Faulkner’s thoughts on The View, her criticisms aren’t just about their broadcasting methods—it’s also about how they handle tough topics and pursue attention. In her own words, she believes honest dialogue and real-time news coverage are the best ways to connect with viewers—something she’s doing, one ratings victory at a time.
