Whoopi Goldberg Explains The Reason Why She Thinks 'American Idol' Began The Downfall of Society

Whoopi Goldberg is not happy where society is at right now.

The 67-year-old The View host blamed the reality TV show American Idol as the “beginning of the downfall of society.”

“I think that we, as a society, love to watch stuff to judge folks. I’ve always thought that the beginning of the downfall of society was with, what’s the name of that show?” Whoppi asked, before a producer answered, “American Idol?”

Keep reading to find out more…“Once we gave people the ability to judge other people, I think we ran amok with it, and it’s gone out of control,” Whoopi opined. “They invited the public to decide who that person was, and I feel once we did that, it began us in a cycle which we have not [gotten out of],” she added.

American Idol first aired on Fox from 2002 until 2016 with Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson. The show then returned in 2018 to ABC, the same network as The View.

The producer chimed in again and said, “One last thing is that we’ve talked about this and it’s gotten better and you like it now … Remember?”

Co-host Sunny Hostin jokingly looked straight into the camera and said, “She likes it ABC. She loves it.”

Whoopi then clarified her statements by saying she only watched the show when, “ABC didn’t have it.”

The context of her statements was a discussion of the new Netflix documentary Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me, which made Whoopi think of all of the different reality shows today.

“You have Basketball Wives, you have the Housewives of whatever, all the Bravo shows, giving you the impression that you’re doing something wrong because you’re living your life,” Whoopi said. “People watch these shows because they make them feel better. People like to be ‘judgy.’”

Earlier this month, Whoopi questioned and doubted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s recounting of their car chase in New York City.