Meghan McCain has never had the easiest time on The View. Whether it’s everyone disrespecting her — as she clearly thinks — or her own communication issues, she’s had one of the most contentious runs on a show known for its personality clashes.

And what happens on the air is nothing compared to the stories we’ve heard from behind the scenes. While the show’s other recurring conservative voice, Ana Navarro, has become friends with her co-hosts, Meghan seems to be unable to turn off the combativeness. She still thinks the ladies are out to get her just because they disagree on “Hot Topics.” In short, she made it personal — you know, the opposite of professional.

Video: Meghan Goes After Donald & Ivanka Trump Following Capitol Attack

All that friction has been absent from the show for the past three months as John McCain‘s daughter has been on maternity leave with her first child. But it picked right back up where it left off on Tuesday!

In case you didn’t catch it, Joy Behar was making a point about the Republicans being more divided than the Democrats right now when Meghan jumped in to point out clashes between liberals and moderates — at which Joy laid down the law, declaring:

“Excuse me, I’m not done!”

Meghan, for her part, actually seemed to try easing the tension of the moment by saying:

“You missed me so much, Joy. You missed me so much when I was on maternity leave. You missed fighting with me.”

Unfortunately that bridge seems to be pretty darn crispy as Joy dropped:

“I did not. I did not miss you. Zero.”

Yeah. Damn. Meghan remarked on how the comment was “rude” as Whoopi Goldberg tossed to commercial.

Speaking of Whoopi, the more surprising exchange was between Meghan and her daytime TV mentor. On Wednesday the ladies were interviewing Senator-elect Raphael Warnock, fresh off his win in the Georgia runoff. Meghan asked him if he would vote to expand the Supreme Court, a very touchy political issue he clearly had no interest in answering; he responded that he was focused on issues for his constituents at the moment, health care and COVID relief — but also implied he was against doing anything revolutionary as he felt like the voters of Georgia were looking for normalcy. Pretty good response all things considered.

But Meghan wouldn’t let it go and asked again. Even as Whoopi started to end the segment, Meghan spoke over her trying to ask again, leading Whoopi to yell at her co-host:

“Hey! Listen!”

You can see that at about minute 11:20 (below):

The moment was so tense, a producer even came on at the end of the show to tell the audience it was actually a “technical issue” they were having, and that Whoopi was getting the attention of producers, not snapping at Meghan.

But a source from the show speaking to DailyMail.com on Friday called BS on that reassurance, rebutting:

“Anyone with a brain could see that Goldberg was pissed that Meghan wouldn’t shut up when it was time for her to wrap the segment and she wanted her, not the producers, to stop talking. It was all clear as glass!”

We thought so too, tbh.

The insider also pointed out how Meghan wasn’t being surprised by Whoopi jumping in either — as she has a little segment clock that told her exactly how much time she had for questions of the newly elected Democrat:

“Meghan could clearly see there was no more time left in the segment. She was trying to create a moment for herself in the show that would have gotten press in conservative media. She loves getting press pickup from her segments on the show and she thought she could do that with Raphael Warnock.”

Backing up the source’s take was the fact that for the rest of the day on Wednesday, Meghan was visibly off her game, unable to complete a thought for a while. She even asked to skip her time on a segment and for Whoopi to go to someone else.

We’re used to seeing the Republican pundit double down after a spat. So what’s up with this new, easily cowed McCain?

Well, according to the show insider, she learned something really upsetting during her hiatus — more people wanted to watch the show when she wasn’t there interrupting every couple minutes! The source said:

“Here’s the other truth, The View did better ratings with Meghan being gone. For years people claimed that viewers tuned in for her craziness, but the numbers showed us otherwise. The show actually broke a record during her maternity leave and now she realizes that she doesn’t have the job security that she once did. All of that has her shook.”

Whoa!

It’s true, following the election in November, The View finally took its place at #1 in the ratings (it helps that Ellen imploded, obviously), and the next week the show averaged 2.9 million viewers, the most it’s been watched since 2014! All while Navarro was filling in…

According to DM‘s sources on the show, ABC was actually worried about the dropoff when Meghan returned. It turns out people may not like the conflict as much as execs thought — not when they can get good insight and healthy conversations from multiple viewpoints instead. After all, if they want talking heads yelling over one another, they can turn on CNN, right?

So does this new, less powerful position mean a kinder, gentler Meghan? Or a more likely exit? We guess we’ll have to wait and see!

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