Ava From Hacks Should Be The View's New Co-Host

Warning: the following contains spoilers for the final two episodes of Hacks Season 2.

It’s a season of change for Ava Daniels. At the end of Hacks Season 2, Ava (played by Hannah Einbinder) finds herself in uncharted territory when Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) fires her and drops the NDA lawsuit, cutting the remaining tie that binds them. Deborah hopes the move will force her counterpart to “be a shark” and embrace the many opportunities now coming her way, and in the season’s final moments, Ava begrudgingly accepts, booking a staff writer gig on a new comedy and a spot on an Ice Age 12 roundtable.

While Ava’s new responsibilities will keep her busy — she has to familiarize herself with the Ice Age universe, of course — there’s one opportunity her agent Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) would be wise to pursue. After all, Ava Daniels isn’t the only one embracing change: The View is still searching for its fifth co-host, and the entitled 25-year-old comedy writer is the perfect person for the job.

Clearly this will never happen, as Ava is a fictional character and The View has made it plain that it's only interested in filling Meghan McCain’s seat with a hardcore conservative (bonus points if you’re an ex-Trumper). But let’s suspend our disbelief for a moment and imagine a world where Ava — a bisexual, anti-capitalist Zillennial — climbs into one of those uncomfortable stools and argues with the ladies about inflation (“Money is a social construct”), open marriages (she’s obviously in favor), and the 2024 presidential election (she wears a Bernie shirt the day of the midterms).

As fans have seen throughout Hacks’ two-season run, Ava is nothing if not opinionated, and she’s particularly comfortable weighing in on timely topics like sexism and socioeconomic disparities. A good View co-host must be unafraid to share their perspective, regardless of what their audience or online trolls might say. Ava proved she’s up to the task long ago, when she accused “classist monster” Deborah of having a “tight as f*ck” butthole during their very first meeting. That exact wording might not fly on ABC, but the confidence and willingness to throw down is there. That’s something you can’t learn on the job — just ask any of the women who rotated through The View’s panel from 2013-2017.

But it’s not just about being able to dish it; succeeding on The View requires knowing how to take it, too. The co-hosts may get into political debates, but after the commercial break, they’re expected to put their hurt feelings aside and pivot to an entirely unrelated topic, like The Real Housewives or Sunny Hostin’s refurbished chicken coop. After months on the road with Deborah, Ava has been trained to let small indignities roll off her back (“Once when I was having an asthma attack, she said, ‘Do you have to do that in here?’” comes to mind), though if someone pisses her off enough, she might write an email to the producers of the scripted Ladies Who Punch miniseries with her first-hand horror stories.

It goes without saying that Ava’s leftist politics would help diversify the panel, which operates far closer to the middle than any political extreme, and as a Gen Z/Millennial, she would bring a much-needed younger perspective to the table. The 20-year age difference between Ava and the next-youngest co-host, Sara Haines, might put her at odds with the ladies, but it could also provide the motherly influence she sought out in Deborah. And who’s to say her relationship with Deborah is over? As a co-host, Ava could ensure that Deborah remains a friend of the show (you know Deborah has been on The View dozens of times over the years), or even push for Deborah Vance’s Everyday Luxuries line to replace View Your Deal: Oprah Edition. The collaboration opportunities are endless.

And if we’re talking about hacks, who better to pair with Ava than Joy Behar, who has been making the same jokes about her “brassiere” and her lackluster sex life for decades? If Ava sticks it out long enough, she could become The View’s new resident comedian, as both Behar and Whoopi Goldberg seem poised to retire in the coming years. Old Ava would almost certainly see the job as a demotion, but after a year of transformation, she might appreciate having a platform to speak her mind freely, and get in a few punchlines along the way.

Judging by her next two commitments, a permanent gig on The View isn’t high on Ava’s priority list. But as Ava knows all too well, it only takes one ill-timed tweet to send someone spiraling from the world of edgy comedy to the Las Vegas Strip. The same goes for daytime television — and now that Ava has her iPhone back, is she really going to be able to stop herself from tweeting about congressmen performing oral sex in the Senate cloak room?

The first two season of Hacks are available to stream on HBO Max. The View airs weekdays at 11:00 AM ET on ABC (and is rebroadcast at 10:00 AM PT in Las Vegas).

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Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.