IOPList.Org

Joy Behar Plans to Retire
From ‘The View’ in 2022
(EXCLUSIVE)







After 21 seasons, Joy Behar has set an exit date from “The View.”

Behar, 77, would like to retire as the resident liberal on the ABC daytime talk show
after her contract ends in the summer of 2022.

She revealed her plans in a new interview for the paperback of the non-fiction book
“Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View’” by Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh.

“I have a three-year contract,” Behar said in the book. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t
leave if I want to, because they can’t really do anything to me at this point. I don’t see
myself staying for more [time]. That’s it! I could be wrong. If I’m as fabulous in [2022]
as I am now, I’ll think about. But the chances of that happening…” She paused to reflect.
“You know, time marches on. I’m not a kid.”

Multiple sources on “The View” have confirmed that Behar has been floating a 2022 exit
from the show.

A spokesperson from ABC denied that Behar would be leaving. “This is not true,” a network
rep said. “Joy was asked what happens at the end of her contract and as she herself made
clear in the interview, if she’s ‘as fabulous in [2022] as I am now,’
she will be in her seat at the table.”

If Behar follows through with her plan, she’ll leave “The View” right before she turns 80.
Creator Barbara Walters departed the show in 2014, at the age of 84.

Behar has been on “The View” longer than any other co-host. She joined the talk show
when it launched in 1997 after auditioning for Walters, and she’s weathered countless
exits and reboots over three decades as the TV landscape has changed.

In 2013, Behar was fired when ABC daytime executives decided that “The View” should
be less political (an idea that seems laughable now). But two years later, in 2015, she
was brought back to the Hot Topics table as ratings sank without her, and she continues
to thrive with her quick commentary on the latest scandals from the Trump White House.

On March 13, Behar took a leave from “The View” to self-isolate as a safety precaution
against the coronavirus. As the other co-hosts — Whoopi Goldberg, Meghan McCain and
Sunny Hostin — started working remotely, Behar has appeared on the show via a satellite
from the Hamptons, where she’s been living.

The paperback edition of “Ladies Who Punch” comes out next week from St. Martin’s Press.
The book, which became a New York Times best seller in April 2019, features interviews
with most of the show’s major players, including Walters, Behar, Rosie O’Donnell,
Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shepherd.