The View aired its season 28 premiere on ABC on Tuesday and, with it, brought about a new era of the show.

Despite broadcasting in a brand-new building, debuting a new theme song and getting used to a different studio, the hosts of the country’s most-watched daytime talk show say nothing’s changing about why The View connects with audiences.

“Even people who hate us love us,” Whoopi Goldberg told ABC Audio. “You know that this is what we’re thinking. It may not be what you want to hear at any given time, but it’s what we are all thinking. Which gives other people the idea that they too can talk with their friends and survive.”

Joy Behar, the only original panelist, said people keep tuning in for the show’s spontaneity. “The fact that we’re not rehearsed, that we don’t know what we’re going to say until we’re sitting there,” Behar said.

With it being an election year, host Sara Haines says to expect many Hot Topics to be political.

“I would argue that the election stuff is probably the most exciting right now. Just every election is historical in its own way. This one’s proving … to be unprecedented in new ways, and so to watch it take shape, it’s kind of front of mind at all times,” Haines said.

Sometimes the panelists disagree, especially about politics. Goldberg says the different viewpoints on display are another reason people enjoy watching the show.

“This is a show about people talking about stuff that sometimes is uncomfortable and sometimes it’s not done the way you want it to get done. But you always know we’re never dull. We’re never boring,” Goldberg said. “Most people see themselves in at least one of us … so we are a universal table.”

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