Joy Behar Left 'The View' at the End of Season 16 — Did She Get Fired?
Published Sept. 9 2021, 1:01 p.m. ET
First introduced by trailblazing broadcaster and show creator Barbara Walters as "somebody who's done almost everything and will say almost anything" on the Season 1 premiere of The View, co-host Joy Behar has seen numerous discussions unfold during her 25-year-long tenure on the show.
An iconic presenter and comedian, Joy has worked alongside hosts like Whoopi Goldberg, Meghan McCain, and many others. So, are the latest rumors anything to go by? Did she get fired from The View in 2013?
So, did Joy Behar get fired from 'The View' in 2013?
On a recent episode of The View that aired on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, Joy, Whoopi, and Sara Haines appeared in a segment alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short.
Just as Martin was about to finish telling a story about how he learned to use Photoshop (he wanted to make his grandmother look nicer), Joy tried to tease him by saying he was "perverted." To clap back, Martin reminded Joy that he wasn't the one who got fired from The View.
"What's your point? At least, I wasn't fired by The View, was I?" Martin said.
"I was, I really was," Joy admitted.
Joy originally told 'Deadline' that she left 'The View' to focus on her standup.
Joy's departure from The View was announced on March 7, 2013. She left the show after Season 16 came to an end in August 2013. She returned to the show in 2015, just in time for Season 19.
"It seemed like the right time," she told Deadline in March 2013. "You reach a point when you say to yourself, 'Do I want to keep doing this?' There are other things on my plate I want to do — I've been writing a play, I've been neglecting my standup."
"I have a lot of friends [at The View]," Joy added. "I will miss everyone I've worked with because we have a family there."
Despite the conversational tone of the interview, Joy didn't go into further details about what had happened or why she reached the decision to quit the talk show. The producers played it mysterious too.
"Joy Behar has been instrumental in the success of The View from the very beginning," the producers of The View shared at the time in a statement to Entertainment Tonight. "We wish her all the best in this next chapter, and are thrilled that we have her for the remainder of the season."
"There was a decision made at some level," Joy later told WBAZ.
Joy shared further details about the topic in other interviews. As she hinted during a conversation with WBAZ (via Entertainment Weekly), the decision was likely made by a higher-up who was eager to switch up a few things.
"I think that somebody … I can't mention names … made the decision to change the show for some reason. So Elisabeth Hasselbeck and I both had to leave," Joy said. "There was a decision made at some level … I really am not at liberty to say who or why because I don't know 100 percent the truth of that."
