Barbara Walters created The View wanting a show with women of different generations, backgrounds, and views discussing daily topics, and she envisioned joining the panel whenever she wanted rather than being a permanent co-host.

The original panel of five women, including Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos, and Joy Behar, were the first group to audition for the show and immediately clicked according to Behar.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck won her seat on the panel after she, Rachel Campos-Duffy, and Erin Hershey Presley each received a week-long on-air tryout in 2003.

The original set used for the first four seasons of The View was a leftover set previously used for the canceled soap opera The City.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the show aired without a live studio audience starting in March 2020, with several co-hosts broadcasting remotely from different locations while Sara Haines remained in the studio.

In March 2017, The View filmed its first remote broadcast from Walt Disney World in Orlando, with five episodes shot in front of the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom and guest appearances from James Cameron previewing Pandora – The World of Avatar.

The show has had several theme songs over the years written by Diane Warren, including 'World's Gone Crazy' performed by Mary J. Blige, 'For My Girls' performed by Brandy Norwood and Nicole Scherzinger, and 'This Version' performed by Leona Lewis.

Barack Obama's appearance on the show on July 29, 2010 marked the first appearance on a daytime talk show by a sitting U.S. president and drew a record 6.6 million viewers, the show's biggest audience up to that point.

In February 2022, ABC News president Kim Godwin suspended Whoopi Goldberg from the show for two weeks after she stated during an episode that the Holocaust was 'not about race'.

A controversial 2015 discussion where co-hosts mocked Miss America contestant Kelley Johnson's nurse-themed talent segment sparked the #NursesUnite backlash and led several sponsors, including Johnson & Johnson and Party City, to pull their advertising from the show.