ABC star Whoopi Goldberg condemns ABC's American Idol for ruining society

Whoopi Goldberg took an inadvertent nibble on the hand that feeds her—and the rest of her The View teammates—this week, when the comedian and star opened up about the detrimental effect she sees reality TV as having had on the world. Like, say, American Idol, which, one of the show’s producers was forced to remind Goldberg, is now a fine ABC product, just like The View.

This is per Us, which reported on an incident from Wednesday’s episode of the long-running chat show, which might as well carry the subtitle “Let’s all wait for Whoopi to say some shit.” Goldberg was expressing her feelings on reality TV at the time, and the generally negative impact it has on the viewer: “You have Basketball Wives, you have the Housewives of whatever, all the Bravo shows,” Goldberg said, “Giving you the impression that you’re doing something wrong because you’re living your life. People watch these shows because they make them feel better. … I think that we, as a society, love to watch stuff to judge folks.”

Goldberg then turned to long-time View executive producer Brian Teta, asking him, “You know, I’ve always thought that the beginning of the downfall of society was with—what’s the name of that show? I always tell you that.” To which Teta promptly replied (getting a laugh in the process), “ABC’s American Idol?”

Of course, as Goldberg herself noted, the show in question wasn’t always part of the Disney-owned network, having spent many years on Fox before getting revived in its new incarnation, and in its new home, a few years back. Nevertheless, Goldberg pressed on: “Once we gave people the ability to judge other people, I think we ran amok with it. And it’s gone out of control.” And, honestly: We’re not convinced she would have recanted even if she’d known the show was an ABC product from the start.