How Sherri Shepherd Helped Sunny Hostin Get Fair Pay on ‘The View’

Sunny Hostin was able to advocate for fair pay on The View because of Sherri Shepherd.

Hostin has been a co-host on The View since 2016. During an appearance on Sherri on Wednesday, May 3, she detailed the invaluable help Shepherd unexpectedly provided when she first signed on. Shepherd left The View as a full-time host in 2014. Her eponymous daytime talk show now sits in The Wendy Williams Show‘s former time slot.

“I don’t even know if you remember this, but when I signed my deal sheet you gave me a call,” Hostin told Shepherd on Wednesday. “I don’t know how you got my number. You were like, ‘I heard you’re coming on the show,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m joining the show.’ She was like, ‘Did they give you a car stipend?’ I was like, ‘No.'”

The conversation then turned into a review of Hostin’s deal, with Shepherd offering valuable insight into what her peers on the show were making.

“You basically went over your salary for the entire time you were there, and you also gave me [former View panelist] Jenny McCarthy‘s salary,” she said. Because of Shepherd’s intel, Hostin was able to negotiate for higher pay with the help of her agent. “You got me paid,” Hostin told Shepherd.

The Sex Lives of College Girls alum said she was paying a lesson from Rosie O’Donnell forward. O’Donnell was briefly a View panelist in 2006/2007. She left after an on-air fight with conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. It seems her short time on the daytime talk show taught her a valuable lesson about looking out for other incoming stars.

“Rosie O’Donnell gave me everybody’s salary and hers, and you’ve got to pay it forward,” Shepherd told Hostin. “You’ve gotta stick together!”

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O’Donnell wasn’t the only person on The View who inspired Shepherd to help her successors. In fact, one of The View‘s original and current hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, helped Shepherd when she was still a struggling artist.

During a press conference ahead of the Sherri series premiere in August 2022, Shepherd recalled the tale of Goldberg’s kindness. During a time when money was particularly tight, Shepherd said Goldberg paid for some new clothes under the condition that she pay it forward one day to other up-and-coming artists.

That lesson inspired Shepherd to incorporate the weekly comedy segment called “Sherri’s Laugh Lounge” into her new talk show. The segment highlights comedians, giving them the chance to be seen by wider audiences. It’s a longstanding tradition on late-night shows that she wanted to bring into the daytime sphere.

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