The View Hosts Blast Dolly Parton’s ‘Act Your Age’ Critics: ‘Bite Me!’

Several of The View‘s hosts came for those who dared come for Dolly Parton, after the music icon donned a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader uniform to perform a Thanksgiving Day halftime show.

With the Cowboys well on their way to a 45-10 routing of the Washington Commanders, it fell on Dolly to liven things up with a halftime show in which she donned aforementioned uniform and sang “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and then “We Are the Champions.” (Watch full video here.)

Dolly’s “Red Kittle Kickoff” halftime show was part of a larger campaign that she is shepherding in support of the Salvation Army’s sparkly new donation kettles that you’ll be seeing here, there and everywhere this holiday season.

But as recounted Whoopi Goldberg and other hosts of The View on Monday, some have snarked that Parton’s wardrobe choice undermined the 77-year-old’s performance.

“Some critics told her to act her age. Bite me!” said Goldberg. Sunny Hostin then chimed in, “If I look liked that in one of them Cowboy things, I might have everything out. I don’t know if that’s a belly ring or what, but I want what she had.”

Sara Haines closed out the dissertation on Dolly by firmly stating, “She looks her age; she does not have to act her age.”

Parton also had a champion in her sister Stella, who opined on Twitter, “I personally thought my big sister Dolly was cute as hell in her Dallas Cowboys cheerleading costume at the half time show on Thanksgiving. To those of you being so critical of a 77 year old kicking up her heels, I say [f–k] yourself. Shame on you not her.”

Of some note, Parton’s performance came on the same Thanksgiving Day that another 77-year-old music legend, Cher, performed a new single during NBC’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage.