Somers made the revelation on the 'Behind the Velvet Rope With David Yontef’ podcast.
Suzanne Somers is revealing she passed on an opportunity to join Barbara Walters when The View first aired, but she claims two reasons kept her away from the now-iconic daytime talk show.
During a conversation with David Yontef on his Behind the Velvet Rope podcast, the Three's Company star said she was "originally asked to be on the original View with Barbara Walters -- and whoever else -- and I turned it down." Walters, the late legendary journalist who created The View, led the original panel that was also comprised of Joy Behar, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones and Debbie Matenopoulos.
The View premiered on ABC in 1997 and while there have been a number of co-hosts since the original panel premiered, the show has more than endured. It's become one of the preeminent shows by being fervently unafraid to tackle sensitive subjects and enter the political and social discourse.
"Everyone said, 'Why would you turn that down? It's a national show,'" Sommers continued on the podcast. "I said, first of all, I'd have to live in New York and I don't want to live in New York. I like the weather down here, the vibe down here. I said, secondly, I don't do well vying for time. And there, you gotta interrupt and butt in and butt out. It's just not my personality. So, I walked away from that and I never looked back."
Somers actually hosted her own eponymous daytime talk show in 1994, though it was short-lived as it lasted only one season. The View would launch on Aug. 11, 1997, and Somers' other big sitcom, Step By Step, aired the season 6 finale on ABC just four days later. The series would later move to CBS, where it aired its seventh and final season.
After that sitcom, Somers would go on to co-host a reboot of Candid Camera on CBS with Peter Funt. Somers hosted until 2000, before the series moved to PAX-TV, which is now the Ion Television Network.
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