‘The View’ with Rosie O’Donnell, Nicole Wallace starts with huge ratings for ABC

Who says that you need “The View” to feel constantly familiar for there to be big ratings? The show completely revamped itself over the summer, and for at least one day, the daytime talk show can claim that it found success that it hasn’t seen in a very long time.

Overall, a total of 3.9 million people watched live, per the preliminary numbers via ABC, which is the best for a premiere episode of the show in eight years. Ironically, the last time the show got these ratings was in 2006, the first time that Rosie was on board the show.

We expected the show to roar straight out of gate, mostly because publicity and drama behind the scenes tend to cultivate great viewer interest. For this show, the conflict is going to be finding a way to ensure that these same people continue to watch in the months ahead. Eventually, though, viewers do start to realize that there are some other options out there, they fall behind on things on their DVR, and the series loses some of that new-car smell. We’ve seen time and time again talk shows start big, and fizzle not that long after that if they don’t pass the test with viewers. We’ll have to see where we are with this come January.

With all of this being said, we like this year’s panel better than the car crash that was last year, where there really was not any real chemistry and it felt like an elaborate victory lap for Barbara Walters.

What is your reaction to the first ratings for the show? Share some of your thoughts right now with a comment.