Sherri Shepherd opens up about the shocking reasons she considered quitting ‘The View’ before the network pushed her out.NH

Sherri Shepherd on ‘The View’.

Lou Rocco/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Sherri Shepherd once famously questioned whether the world was flat or not, but the former View cohost’s path to her own talk show was anything but a straight shot.

During a recent interview with former Saturday Night Live star Ego Nwodim, the Sherri star reflected on her time on the ABC talk show, which she joined as a permanent cohost in 2007 — years before she landed her own headlining gig on the Sherri show in 2022.

“I cohosted The View for seven years,” Shepherd said of her tenure on the program, which ended in 2014, as she and Nwodim reflected on the latter’s exit from SNL earlier this year.Sherri Shepherd on ‘The View’.

Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty

“I started feeling like I’ve got to leave, I want my own talk show, and I have to leave,” Shepherd continued. “I didn’t know they had fired me before that!”

Nwodim made light of the situation, turning toward the audience to joke, “But, she was gonna leave! You didn’t fire me, I was going to quit! I quit before you fired me!”

Shepherd confirmed that she did plan to leave the show, and explained why.

“It was that thing that does come up, it was just time,” the 30 Rock actress said. “If I don’t do it now, it will be stability, and I don’t want stability.”

Nwodim expanded on the thought, adding that, “The risk is fun, huh? Right? You feel like gambling on yourself to see what you can achieve,” and that she’s “excited for the future” beyond SNL.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for The View for comment.Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Regis Philbin, Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck on ‘The View’.

Sherri Shepherd on ‘The View’.

Shepherd joined The View and sat among one of the most memorable Hot Topics table lineups in the show’s history, with co-creator Barbara Walters, current moderator Whoopi Goldberg, longtime panelist Joy Behar, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck all fronting the show alongside Shepherd across her seven-year stint.

Earlier this year, Shepherd recounted on The Jamie Kern Lima Show that Walters made her “cry for three years straight” on the show.

“For me, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I did cry for three years. Barbara Walters made me cry for three years straight, but what I learned, she taught me how to find my voice,” reflected Shepherd, who noted that she had childhood-era trauma that prompted her to indulge a fear of interrupting others. “I found my voice on that show. I joke, I say, now my voice is deep because Barbara told me when your voice is deeper, it projects confidence.”

Other classic moments from The View‘s past have resurfaced in recent weeks, particularly involving Hasselbeck and Rosie O’Donnell, cohosts who famously clashed on air in 2007 — and had a major falling out after.

Hasselbeck fired back at O’Donnell after the latter said on a recent podcast that she felt their infamous on-air fight was “a setup” by the team led by producer Bill Geddie, who died in 2023.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.

The conservative figure responded in a series of tearful Instagram Stories, where she urged O’Donnell to “stop the madness” and “stop the lying.”

Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Regis Philbin, Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck on ‘The View’.