“The Talk” co-host Julie Chen offered some words of criticism to the show’s daytime rival "The View." The Los Angeles Times’ Show Tracker reports that Chen made an appearance Wednesday on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show in which she said she believes it was a mistake for “The View” to hire actress Jenny McCarthy.

"What made ‘The View’ so popular and so good was that you had five different women from different walks of life discussing politics,” Chen said. “And when … Joy [Behar] left and when Elisabeth [Hasselbeck] left, and they got Jenny in, I think they were trying to lighten the mood at the table. More gossip, more fun, more laughs. Jenny is beautiful and funny and talented and smart. In my opinion, ‘The View’ doesn’t know what it is now."

She added, “No one wants to listen to Jenny McCarthy talk about the New York mayoral race or politics."

Nevertheless, Chen said she thinks McCarthy, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, would work better on “The Talk,” given that it avoids political discussions, the piece notes.

CBS’s “The Talk” appears to have some momentum in its battle for eyeballs with the more established "The View." "The Talk," which has been on the air for three years, drew an average of 2.81 million viewers in the November sweeps, 20% higher than a year earlier. ABC’s daytime mainstay “The View,” which has been on the air since 1997, averaged 2.97 million viewers in the first week of the November sweeps, the piece notes.

Julie Chen