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Fans Think Newcomer Abby Huntsman Deserves Credit for Huge Bump In Viewership on ‘The View’

The View” Season 22 opener was the most-watched season premiere in four years, and fans think newcomer Abby Huntsman has something to do with it.

According to The New York Post, the show’s Sept. 4 premiere boasted 2.9 million viewers, and the show saw its total number of weekly viewers reach 2.8 million, a viewership it has not seen since April.

The daytime talk show welcomed Huntsman, a former Fox News host, this season to a seat at the roundtable, where she’s joined by longtime co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin. Meghan McCain, the show’s conservative voice and a close friend of Huntsman’s, remains on leave after the death of her father, Sen. John McCain, who lost his battle with brain cancer last month.

“Meghan is like a sister to me, and this was the hardest thing she has ever been through,” the new co-host said on the show. “Her dad was her best friend, her dad was everything.”

So far, Huntsman has been well received by fans, who see her as a breath of fresh air from McCain’s temper tantrums and “whiny” on-air fits. Many also think she could be the reason behind the show’s huge boost in viewership.

“You think they’ll appropriately thank for it? Probably not,” wrote one Twitter fan.

“U will make the view better for sure still have a very hard time watching,” another fan said of the former “Fox and Friends” weekend host. “[I] quit when they started bashing our potus on a daily basis. Stay true to u and speak up to them for us! Teach them how it is to be nice!”

One woman described Huntsman as a “wonderful balancing voice” on “The View,” but others wondered how long it’d be before she calls it quits. So far, McCain is the only conservative co-host to last more than one season among the panel of left-leaning women.

“Abby won’t last!” one critic wrote, “Woopie will turn on her like a pit bull! I give it to February and she’s out!”

“IMHO was a BIG mistake!” another critic chimed in. “ didn’t need another Conservative bimbo. will eat her for lunch!”

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