The View Co-Hosts Won’t Follow Tradition of Dressing Up for Halloween This Year

The View co-hosts are ghosting Halloween this year.

Fans won’t be seeing the hosts of the iconic talk show follow their tradition of dressing up for Halloween come Oct. 31. Producer Brian Teta announced the news on the Behind the Table podcast on Oct. 15., acknowledging people wouldn’t be happy to hear it.

“I’m going to announce something today that’s going to upset a portion of the audience, but I think it’s going to make you happy,” Teta told Joy Behar. “This year, because it’s only a few days before the election and we need to be live, the hosts are not going to dress up for Halloween. If you’re quiet, you can hear a section of our audience screaming very upset right now.”

Behar joked that she didn’t realize the segment had such fans because “we’ve done it every single year for 28 years — it’s always annoying for us.” Still, she praised past memorable costumes, like late creator Barbara Walters as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

“They’re iconic, it’s great, I’ll try to bring it back next year,” Teta continued. “The problem is, those shows are a huge undertaking, we have to do them on tape. Part of what our show has become and what it is right now, we can’t be on tape three days before the election.”

He joked that Behar dressed as Pinocchio amid a major election wouldn’t be appropriate, as much as the tradition is beloved.

“No, it’s too important,” Behar then agreed with Teta. “I don’t mean that to be grandiose, but we do have some influence in people’s thinking. And we need to use every single minute on this show to inform the public about how dangerous [Donald Trump] is.”

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The co-hosts have skipped dressing up in the past, with the latest being in 2020 during the last presidential election. In the years following, the tradition continued, and in 2023, they celebrated the 100th anniversary of Disney on the holiday.

“The Halloween show is a treasured View tradition since the show began and it means a lot to our audience,” Teta told PEOPLE in a statement ahead of the episode at the time. “It’s an incredible amount of work but with everything going on in the world it’s so important to take a minute and have a little fun — not to mention showcase the incredible talent of our View Crew.”

“Some of our most memorable costumes and themes over the years have celebrated Disney, so we thought the historic Disney 100 anniversary was a perfect opportunity,” he added, noting that the episode would feature some co-hosts “taking a little time to enjoy the Magic Kingdom with a trip to Disney World” as well.

Whoopi Goldberg dressed as Tour Guide Barbie from Toy Story 2, while Sara Haines embodied Carl from Up, Ana Navarro took on both Isabella and Mirabel Madrigal from Encanto, Sunny Hostin was Neytiri from Avatar, Alyssa Farah Griffin transformed into Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Behar became Cruella de Vil from Cruella. 

The View airs weekdays on ABC (check local listings).