LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will appear on female chat show “The View” on Thursday, in what the ABC network said yesterday was the first appearance by a sitting US president on a daytime TV talk show.
Obama’s July 29 appearance will be taped tomorrow. He will be asked about jobs, the economy, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and family life inside the White House, ABC said in a statement.
Veteran journalist and “The View” co-host Barbara Walters, will also return to the studio for Obama’s appearance for the first time since she underwent open heart surgery in May.
Obama appeared on “The View” in March 2008 when he was campaigning for the US presidency, and his wife Michelle was a featured co-host in June of that year.
“We are so pleased and honored that President Obama will be a guest on ‘The View.’…This shows that both the president and first lady feel that our show is an influential and important source of information and news,” Walters, 80, said in a statement.
Walters added that she would return to the show full-time in September.
“The View”, which debuted in 1997, features spirited conversations and interviews with celebrity guests by hosts, Walters, actress Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd. It is one of the top daytime shows for female viewers.
In March 2009, Obama became the first sitting president to appear on a US late-night talk show, when he was a guest on NBC’s “The Tonight Show”, hosted by Jay Leno.
