If you came here expecting me to tell you that Josh D’Amaro went nuclear on the public after The View suffered “the worst ratings disaster in history,” I’m not going to insult your intelligence by pretending that story checks out.
It doesn’t.
What actually happened is more interesting, and honestly more revealing. The anti-ABC outrage machine took a real political fight, wrapped it in fake collapse language, sprinkled in made-up executive quotes, and pushed it out like it was breaking news. That is the real story.
Here’s the first problem: the “ratings disaster” claim falls apart the second you compare it with ABC’s own June 2026 press releases. On June 12, ABC said The View ranked No. 1 in households and total viewers for the week of June 1. On June 17, ABC said it did it again for the week of June 8. That does not sound like a show falling through the floor. It sounds like a show its critics desperately want to be dead.
Second problem: the supposed Josh D’Amaro “attack” on viewers and critics does not line up with any credible public statement I could find. Disney’s published May 6 earnings commentary from D’Amaro is standard corporate CEO material: strategy, streaming, technology, IP, long-term growth. No fiery rant. No “simple-minded critics” line. No speech about The View being one of Disney’s “most beloved programs” while scolding the public. The quote set floating around online reads like culture-war fan fiction, not like something pulled from an earnings call, investor event, or official Disney release.
So what is real?
The real fight is regulatory and political. ABC and Disney are actively pushing back against FCC scrutiny tied to The View and ABC station licenses. As of June 22, ABC is even running on-air messaging asking viewers to support the network during the investigations. That is an actual escalation. It’s public. It’s documented. And it tells you Disney sees pressure here.
But that still is not the same thing as “new Disney CEO attacks the public after historic ratings collapse.” That framing tries to smuggle three shaky claims past you at once: that The View imploded, that D’Amaro publicly blamed viewers, and that the whole thing was triggered by some universally acknowledged backlash event. The evidence for that package just isn’t there.
And this is where I think people should slow down. I have no issue criticizing Disney, ABC, or The View. If they say something arrogant, politically smug, or out of touch, say it. If the network is using regulatory pressure as a shield while pretending it is only defending principle, say that too. But once you start inventing quotes and declaring a weekly ratings leader to be a historic casualty, you stop doing commentary and start doing theater.
That’s my takeaway: Disney may have a messaging problem, ABC may have a trust problem, and The View may absolutely keep irritating half the country. All of that can be true. But the viral version of this story still looks wildly overstated.
The cleanest read is this: there is a real ABC-vs-FCC fight happening right now, and partisan media entrepreneurs are using it to manufacture a much sexier collapse narrative than the facts support.
Sources
- ABC press site: The View ranked No. 1 for week of June 1, 2026
- ABC press site: The View ranked No. 1 for week of June 8, 2026
- Disney Q2 FY26 earnings commentary from CEO Josh D’Amaro
- The Guardian on ABC urging viewers to back the network amid FCC investigations, June 22, 2026
- Los Angeles Times on FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’s letter to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, May 11, 2026
