Joy Behar has been inexplicably but mercifully absent from her ABC talk show The View this week. On Wednesday morning, the show’s moderator Whoopi Goldberg finally updated viewers on what exactly is going on with Behar.
Goldberg Explains Behar’s Absence
“Well, hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The View, y’all,” Goldberg, 70, said at the start of Wednesday’s show. “Now, Joy is out because she hurt her foot, and hopefully she’ll be back here tomorrow.”
Goldberg went on to make light of the status of herself and her co-hosts in the studio.
“I’m sitting like this because I’m cold as hell,” she complained. “I don’t know why it’s so cold in this room, but every day we beg and plead, ‘Please, can we have a little heat?’ And they say, ‘No, make your own!'”
One day before that, Goldberg had simply said, “Joy is out today, hopefully she’ll be back tomorrow.”
It remains to be seen if Behar, 83, will be returning for Thursday’s show. Indeed, it’s a big day on The View, as Goldberg is celebrating her 70th birthday.
Goldberg is set to be joined on The View by Jimmy Kimmel, whose birthday is also today. Indeed, Kimmel is turning 58, making him twelve years younger than Goldberg. Since Kimmel is based in Los Angeles, and The View is filmed in New York City, he will be appearing on the show virtually.
Behar’s History With The View
Behar was one of the original panelists on The View when it premiered back in 1997. She has been on the show ever since, with the exception of a brief period between 2013 and 2015.
Earlier this year, Behar revealed that her agent had initially advised her not to take the job on The View.
“When I got this job — when was it? 1997? — I was sort of on the cusp of getting a sitcom,” Behar recalled back in January. “I had been in a sitcom already, and I’d done a pilot.”
Behar had reportedly been a regular on NBC’s TV adaptation of the 1987 film Baby Boom in the late 1980s. It’s unclear what pilot she’s referring to, however.
“The call comes for this job to do The View with Barbara Walters,” Behar continued. “Do you know that my agent told me not to take it?”
Behar’s agent had argued that the show didn’t pay enough. However, Behar “knew that it would be a smart show” with Walters behind it.
The rest, as they say, is history, and Behar remains on The View to this day.
Behar’s ‘Holes Are Dried Up’
Last month, Behar celebrated her 83rd birthday on The View with a jewelry tag sale. As she showed off her collection of clip-on earrings, she bizarrely joked that her “holes are dried up.”
“Now, I have a fabulous collection of clip-on earrings,” Behar said at the time. “Whenever I see them, I buy them, because my holes are dried up.”
It remains to be seen if Behar will make her triumphant return to The View today, or if her hiatus will continue. While we hope Behar’s foot is doing alright, we also hope she takes more time off from The View. In the end, we don’t miss Behar one bit, and the world is much quieter without her on TV!