Vice President J.D. Vance’s June 16 appearance on ABC’s “The View” drew roughly 3.331 million viewers, making it the program’s most-watched episode since the day after the 2024 presidential election and its second-most-watched telecast in nearly five and a half years, according to Nielsen Media Research’s Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings.
The week of June 15 averaged 2.942 million total viewers for “The View,” a 22% increase over the prior week, according to ABC’s ratings release. The show ranks No. 1 among all broadcast daytime talk programs for the ninth consecutive season.
Mr. Vance appeared on the program to promote his new book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” which traces his return to Christianity and conversion to Catholicism. The book follows his bestselling 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
During the episode, Mr. Vance fielded pointed questions from the show’s co-hosts on a range of topics, including administration economic policy, the Epstein files, and immigration enforcement. Co-host Joy Behar challenged the vice president over President Trump’s dismissal of affordability concerns, citing White House spending on a ballroom, reflecting pool, and a planned structure dubbed the “Arch de Trumpe.” Mr. Vance replied that Mr. Trump’s position was that Republicans did not cause the country’s affordability problems and said inflation had reached 9 percent under the Biden administration before falling to 3.5% — a figure he called “too high” — adding that the administration was working to bring it to 2.5%.
Co-host Sunny Hostin pressed Mr. Vance on a New York Times report identifying him as a leading advocate behind the scenes for releasing the Epstein files. Mr. Vance disputed the framing, saying people should not believe everything they read in newspapers, but said he personally wanted “full transparency” because Jeffrey Epstein was “clearly a sex predator” connected to powerful figures. He pointed to the Epstein Files Transparency Act and said Mr. Trump had reported Epstein to law enforcement.
The appearance aired amid a broader dispute between ABC and the Federal Communications Commission, which is weighing whether “The View” qualifies as a “bona fide” news program exempt from equal-time requirements for political candidates.
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