Add view over tableview (UITableViewController)

The issue is that the View of a UITableViewController is a UITableView, so you cannot add subviews to the controller on top of the table.

I'd recommend switching from a UITableViewController to a simple UIViewController that contains a UITableView. This way the controller main view is a plain UIView that contains a table, and you can add subviews to the main UIView and they will be placed on top of the table view.

You can use self.navigationController.view as view for adding subview.