'The View' Hosts Apologize Over Controversial Comments Made About Nurses

Well, it wouldn’t be The View without a little controversy, right?

During Monday's show, the ladies were recapping the Miss America pageant when co-host Michelle Collins brought up Miss Colorado’s performance during the talent portion. Instead of, say, baton twirling or water glass playing, nurse Kelley Johnson performed a monologue about working with an Alzheimer’s patient.

“She came out in a nurse’s uniform and basically read her emails out loud and shockingly did not win,” Collins joked. “I was like, that’s not a real talent.”

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Joy Behar chimed in, asking, “Why does she have a doctor’s stethoscope on?”

Collins then added, “She helps patients with Alzheimer’s, which I know is not funny, but I swear you had to see it.”

Backlash from the nursing community was swift, with nurses using the hashtag #NursesUnite to share pictures of themselves with their stethoscopes.

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On Wednesday, Collins responded to the controversy. “We love nurses. We adore you. We respect you. You guys are wonderful,” she said. “You’re the most compassionate people. I was not talking about nurses, we were talking about the talent competition, and it got misconstrued.”

Meanwhile, Behar said she was “just not paying attention.” “I was looking at a Miss America tape, and there’s a woman wearing an outfit with a stethoscope, and I’m thinking is she in a costume?” she explained. “I didn’t know she was a nurse. I’m used to seeing them in gowns and bathing suits.”

She continued, “It’s not like I was trying to be funny. It was just stupid and inattentive. I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.”

Plus, Behar, who returned to the roundtable this year after co-hosting seasons one through 16, recently told ET that she’ll need “a lot of therapy” returning to The View:

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