SM: How did you land on The View after taking huge steps forward in journalism?

Lisa Ling: After I worked with Channel One for seven years, I had to decide where to go from there. When my agent told me about The View, I thought, ‘Well, that’s interesting.’ I started watching it and actually found it to be a very empowering show—it’s five women of different generations who have this platform. I thought, ‘Maybe I can do this and raise my profile enough that one day I’ll be able to get back to journalism and dictate better the kinds of stories I want to do.’ That’s kind of how that happened. I never envisioned myself doing daytime talk.

SM: Why did you decide to leave the show?

Lisa Ling: Really, after September 11, I got the desire to go back into the field because I felt like there were stories in the world that I had covered that I wanted to communicate to an American audience. That was the moment where I decided it was time.

SM: The View is so big. Did you ever fear you would regret leaving?