#CBS panics as ‘The Talk’ sinks in ratings against chief rival ‘The View’

Drama behind the scenes of daytime talk shows is heating up as Sharon Osbourne’s CBS show “The Talk” sinks in the ratings against ABC rival “The View.”

CBS insiders say producers and network execs are “panicking” after “The Talk’s” ratings dropped to 1.5 million, half of “The View’s” audience of 3 million.

One insider told Page Six, “ ‘The View’ has been growing at a huge rate during the COVID lockdown, and ‘The Talk’ is literally the lowest-rated show in the whole CBS lineup.

“At one point, ‘The Talk’ and ‘The View’ were only 30,000 viewers apart … Sharon Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood’s plan of getting rid of Marie Osmond was clearly a mistake in terms of ratings and number of viewers.”

Page Six exclusively reported in September that Osmond was ousted after just one season as co-host when Osbourne and Underwood went to CBS execs and threatened to quit unless she was canned. While her former co-hosts’ motivations for pushing her out were unclear, Osmond gave the quintessential showbiz excuse of wishing to spend more time with family and to “pursue other projects.”

But the CBS insider said the rotating host roster — which includes Amanda Kloots, Rumer Willis and Elaine Welteroth, who is stepping in to replace Eve — has not been delivering numbers, leaving producers and executives “panicked and frustrated.”

“Nothing is working,” said the show insider. “We are now the lowest-rated network program and we can’t get any traction. To lose more than half a million viewers in a year is catastrophic for a daytime show. Unless we can hire Gayle King, Oprah or Meghan Markle, the writing is on the wall.”

But a separate CBS insider insisted, “’The Talk’ does better than the other competing syndicated daytime series. [It] is the newest show in the daytime lineup and other shows in the lineup have been on air for decades prior. Show producers and execs are not panicked and the show is not in jeopardy of getting canceled.”

Reps for CBS and “The Talk” declined to comment.