'The View' returns for Season 24 with new but familiar co-host

NEW YORK CITY -- "The View" is back for Season 24 with more Hot Topics, more provocative conversation, and more opinions -- and the newest co-host is a familiar face.

Sara Haines returns to the show after two years, and the program was recently honored with a Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Informative Talk Show. The ratings are higher than usual, which isn't entirely unexpected given it's less than two months before the Presidential Election.

The ladies of "The View" are used to fighting to get a word in edgewise, and making their points can be even harder when working from home during the pandemic.

"The technology is killing me," Joy Behar said. "To have to sit here in my house and to not have a face-to-face conversation with people, to have somewhat of a delay, is very difficult."

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Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain agree that they miss the studio, but all involved are determined to make the best of a challenging situation.

"Luckily, the pandemic came at a time when we'd all been working together for a very long time," McCain said. "Sunny's been on the show five years. And I've been on the show, this is my fourth year. And I think there's a comfort level, and I think if we'd been newer and greener, we couldn't have carried it."

Haines is the newest among them, but she is a familiar face and the only co-host who is actually in the studio during the show. She spoke of the moment she saw that red camera light go on for the first time this week.

"The tension was physical-ized," she said. "I shook a little and then said, what better time than now? Let's do this."

She told her colleagues on the show that being with them "is even more of an honor than it ever has been before."

Hostin efforted to explain Haines' role.

"Sara is generally in the middle, you know?" she said. "I think if you look at me, if you look at Meghan, Joy, we are certainly very opinionated. We pick a side. We know where we're at. I think Sara generally is figuring it out."

So many of us are still trying to figure it out, and we all benefit from the guidance of moderator Whoopi Goldberg during this pandemic.

"Because I'm used to making adjustments in a world that is always shifting, it was just like, OK," she said. "There are things that are going to kick things up, and we just have to hold on."

Most of them may be working from home, but they are still very much in their element.

"The View" airs each weekday on this ABC station.