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 2023.
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 2023 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 [2023] 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.
