Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro Confirmed as New ‘The View’ Co-Hosts

The View has officially named two co-hosts for Season 26: Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro. ABC, the home of the daytime talk show, has tapped Griffin and Navarro to fill the spot left open by Meghan McCain, the show announced on today’s episode.

Both Griffin and Navarro are set to begin their permanent hosting gigs in September, when The View returns for Season 26.

Griffin appeared on today’s episode of the show, where she said she was “honored” to join The View as co-host. “I can’t say how much I’ve learned from all of you and I hope to learn from all of you. The last couple of years have been turbulent for me… I am so proud to have found my voice,” she said.

She added, “I’m here to join this table and hopefully bring a new perspective. I’m so excited for it. I’m ready for it,” before thanking “the whole View team” for welcoming her.

While Griffin’s title as full-time host will be new, she’s plenty familiar with the talk show after guest-hosting multiple shows this season. Griffin will join the co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines for Season 26.

Before joining The View, Griffin worked for former president Donald Trump as White House Director of Strategic Communications. Since leaving the White House, Griffin has been an outspoken opponent of Trump, whom she often criticized during The View segments.

After her time in the White House came to an end, Griffin joined CNN as a political commentator, appearing on the network beginning in 2021.

Navarro has appeared on The View as a guest for years since 2013, offering her take as a Republican but maintaining a staunchly anti-Trump stance. Like Griffin, Navarro is also a political commentator on CNN.

During her appearance on today’s show, Navarro said she is “finally putting a ring on it and making it official” by joining The View as a co-host.

Still, she clarified that her work and personal life mean she won’t be a full-time co-host on the show, but added, “I love, love, love doing this show … I know it’s a huge, enormous, incomparable privilege to be part of a 25-year institution.”

Reflecting on her past and how her background has led her to her current role, Navarro continued, “When a little Latina immigrant girl born in Chinandega, Nicaragua, who came to this country at the age of eight as a political refugee and found her home here gets the opportunity and the chance to have a platform, you grab it with both hands and you run with it.”

Griffin and Navarro’s appointment to full-time hosts comes about a year after McCain left The View for good in August 2021. McCain, who had co-hosted the show for four seasons, stepped away to spend more time with her family in Washington, D.C.

With McCain gone, The View pulled in multiple guest co-hosts for Season 25, tapping the always-reliable Navarro, but also choosing some more controversial fill-ins, from Kristen Soltis Anderson to  Michele Tafoya.

ABC allegedly struggled with replacing McCain, with Politico reporting in December that the network was trying to find a conservative co-host who could check “all the boxes” they were looking for. A former View staffer told the outlet, “They are really looking for a unicorn. They want someone who is going to fight — but not too hard, because they don’t want it to be ugly and bickering.”

ABC later denied the report and said it was “on track” to replace McCain.