Per iOS standard design, only one ViewController is supposed to manage a full screen (iPhone) or region of a screen (iPad eg. split view controller). That's because you want to keep the view hierarchy pretty straightforward, instead of taking the view portions of other view controllers and inserting them as subviews of another VC. (Makes you feel dirty). Suggest watching the WWDC 2011 video on Customer Container VC's for an explanation.

Also it would be quite a bit of overkill and extra communication and code to back every table with a full blown view controller.