Whoopi Goldberg is not shy about why she shows up to The View every weekday morning.
Appearing on Keke Palmer's Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast on Tuesday, Goldberg was asked what her favorite part of the long-running daytime show is. Her answer was immediate: "The check. I love the check."
When Palmer replied that she "can only imagine" the size of that paycheck, Goldberg pushed back fast. "No, no, you can't. Trust me. You can't. You would be shocked. As soon as they showed you that check, you'd be like, 'What the!?'" she said, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Palmer, who called the salary situation "incredible," got one more word from Goldberg on the subject: "It is what it is."
Journalist Yashar Ali put a number to the tease shortly after the episode dropped, reporting on X that three people familiar with Goldberg's contract told him she earns $6 million a year on the show. Ali added some context alongside the figure: "She's talking about it as if she's making Oprah money. Whoopi made much, much, much more from films like The Lion King, which came out 32 years ago and required very little work compared with The View."
Goldberg herself seemed to temper expectations on the same podcast appearance, noting that celebrity paychecks are rarely what headlines suggest. "The truth of the matter is, very few of us are actually making the kind of money you're reading about," she said. "If I had that kind of money, and I love my job, I don't know that I'd still be doing the show. But a girl's gotta eat, and I never married well, so I still have to support myself."
She also made clear that The View gig is not the richest contract she has ever signed, and that her EGOT status does not keep the lights on. "What flashes in my mind is, 'Is this going to help me pay my rent? Is this going to pay my mortgage?' Every accolade I've received, I'm grateful for, but it doesn't always translate into work," per TV Insider.
Goldberg traced her nearly two decades on the show back to a call from Barbara Walters in 2007. "She said, 'We just lost one of the people on the show, would you consider coming over?' And I'd been doing a radio show, and I said, 'Absolutely, yeah!' She brought me over, and it's like I've been crazy-glued to that chair!" she said.
The timing of the podcast lands during The View's summer hiatus following the Season 29 finale, with Season 30 set to return in September. Page Six reported in July that Goldberg took a pay cut ahead of Season 29, though she remains the highest-paid host on the panel.
