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The fallout continues for ABC’s The View following the show’s co-hosts snarky comments about Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson’s nurse monologue at the 2016 Miss America pageant. Several advertisers have now pulled their support for the program.
Johnson & Johnson and Eggland’s Best were the first to cut ties from the daytime talk show last week, and Party City, Snuggle, and spice company McCormick followed suit the following day, according to multiple reports. It’s unclear whether the decisions are permanent.
On Thursday, Johnson & Johnson was first to release a statement announcing the company disagrees “with recent comments on daytime television about the nursing profession and we have paused our advertising accordingly.” The following four companies took to Facebook to share the news of their decisions, along with messages in defense of nurses. (Party City responded to individual commenters on its page that it has decided to “pause its advertising accordingly.”)
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The social media storm began last Monday after hosts Michelle Collins and Joy Behar joked about Johnson’s talent portion during the pageant, during which the 22-year-old performed a monologue about her career as a nurse who aids Alzheimer’s patients.
“There was a girl who wrote her own monologue and I was like ‘Turn the volume up, this is going be amazing—let’s listen,’” Collins said. “She came out in a nurse’s uniform and basically basically read her emails and, shockingly, did not win. I swear to God it was hilarious.”
Her co-host Joy Behar then chimed in, “Why does she have a doctor’s stethoscope on?”
Collins continued the cringeworthy commentary by telling the crowd, “She helps patients with Alzheimer’s, which I know is not funny, but I swear, you have to see it. Like, Google it if you can.”
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Nurses across the country immediately rallied on social media with the hashtag #NursesUnite to support Johnson, who spoke out Thursday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show about the situation, saying “[Nurses] work so hard and they are life savers, and that was all the message I wanted to give. It’s about them, not about me.”
After initial apologies on last Wednesday’s show, the hosts went a step further by inviting a group of nurses to visit the show on Friday and take a stand for their hard work. Collins went on to apologize again for her comments and said she “really didn’t understand the challenges facing nurses.”
Behar also added during Friday’s episode that it has become “abundantly clear to me this week that nurses wear stethoscopes.”
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