‘The View’: New season begins with Rosie O’Donnell, net set, Joan Rivers tribute

On Monday, “The View” officially kicked off its new season, and attempted in the process to give you a show that felt familiar, but still new at the same time.

One thing that was incredibly different from the get-go was the new set, which felt more modern, sleek, and intimate than the larger one that they occupied for many of the past few years. This image below, which features Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg talking with Kristin Chenoweth, just lets you see how close the audience is to some of the talent when they come down on this level.

The show itself put a lot of effort into convincing us that all of these people really had a family environment going on here. Rosie Perez and Nicole Wallace were introduced over the course of the hour, and O’Donnell made it clear that she liked the conservative Wallace, which may have been her nipping any possible conversation about them not getting along in the bud.

The truth here, though, is that this still felt like a pilot for a new talk show, and it is going to take a heck of a lot of time for things to really figure themselves out here. Maybe “The View” turns out to be a huge success, but we’d be concerned given that O’Donnell’s track record lately has not been great, and you no longer have the allure of a retired Barbara Walters on a regular basis. Even though she appeared today, that is far from a regular occurrence.

What do you think about these photos, and do you have any major expectations for the rest of this upcoming season for “The View”? Share your thoughts right now with a comment.