Sherri Shepherd had a tough boss at “The View.”
During her recent appearance on “The Jamie Kern Lima Show,” Shepherd, 58, recalled that Barbara Walters made her first few years on the ABC daytime show a difficult experience emotionally.
“I did cry for three years. Barbara Walters made me cry for three years straight,” said Shepherd, who joined the panel in 2007.
Sherri Shepherd, Barbara Walters on “The View” in 2013. Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
“But what I learned, she taught me how to find my voice,” Shepherd added of the late broadcast TV icon. “That’s what Barbara Walters did for me. I found my voice on that show. What I joke about, I say now my voice is deep because Barbara told me when your voice is deeper, it projects confidence. So that I joke about.”
The “Sherri” host continued, “But that woman there, she was hard on me. She was like, ‘Read a book. Know why you’re saying what you’re saying. Be able to defend what you’re saying. It’s okay if you fall. It’s okay if you make a mistake.’ And that’s what I learned.”
Shepherd, who spent seven years at “The View” table until her contract expired in 2014, said she’s immensely grateful for her time on the show.
“The View, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, they talk bad about The View.’ For me, it was one of the best experiences of my life,” Shepherd shared.
The comedian and actress also explained how she was afraid to speak her mind until she joined the Emmy Award-winning program.
“When I got on The View, it was everything I hated to do, I had to do every day on The View. I was a very fearful person,” she said. “I was not like that, I was very fearful, I was very shy. I didn’t express my opinion. I learned it, I said it, but I was not this Sherri. To be interrupting people … if I didn’t interrupt people on ‘The View,’ I didn’t get hurt.”
Shepherd added that she was initially apprehensive to “go up against” the other ladies on the panel, but her producing partner gave her meaningful advice to stand by her opinions, and eventually she learned to stop “censoring” herself.
During a recent interview with Vulture, Shepherd revealed that her former co-host Rosie O’Donnell convinced her to negotiate a higher salary with the show’s execs.
“They didn’t want to give me no money,” Shepherd said. “I would have made more in a sitcom, and I got a boy with special needs.”
The “30 Rock” alum said that while co-hosts Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck were each making $500,000, she was offered $400,000 but successfully negotiated getting over $1 million.
By the time she left the show, Shepherd was making $2 million, she said.
“The View” was created in 1997 by Walters, who was apart of the show’s original lineup alongside Behar, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones and Debbie Matenopoulos. Walters died at age 93 in December 2022.
After Walters’ passing, Shepherd said on her talk show that one of Walters’ best pieces of advice was “you have to speak up or you will get left behind.”
“I was just ready to follow the rules. I was a nice girl — and I learned that from Barbara, you have to jump in,” Shepherd added. “You have to speak.”
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