When I added this book to be tbr, I didn't realize it was authored by a man. A gossipy historiography of women's television by a dude isn't as appealing to me as it would be if written by someone on the female/femme/transfeminine spectrum, but that didn't stop me from reading it.

I'm not the biggest View watcher, so I didn't connect like a fan or hate watcher. I've only even been thinking about The View lately because Meghan McCain saying something vile trends on Twitter now and again. I love celebrity gossip, regardless. The first half of the book flowed better, maybe because people stopped being as cooperative with Setoodeh toward the end, or Barbara Walters failing due to age isn't as fun as her failing due to arrogance and self-absorption. I also noticed around the middle that Setoodeh refers to women by their first names, except the brief period when Rosie O'Donnell and Rosie Perez were both on the show, but the men were last-named.

The gossip about individual insecurities and popularity declines was hard for me to read, and maybe it turns out I don't love gossip as much as I thought I did.