Joy Behar on How She Keeps Her Cool With ‘The View’ Co-Hosts, and Her 25th Year on the Show (Exclusive)

ABC’s The View premiered its 27th season on Tuesday, and ET’s Rachel Smith was there to catch up with the talk show’s hosts behind the scenes.

Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro were all present and accounted for to ring in season 27. The level-headed moderator of the table, Whoopi Goldberg, had to miss out on the festivities after contracting COVID-19.

“She has COVID,” Behar told the show’s audience earlier that day. “It’s back. It’s back. But she’s on the mend, she’s at the tail end and she’ll probably be back this week.”

“She’s at the tail end of it. So, she should be back really soon,” Behar adds to ET. “I hear she’s doing very well. A lot of people are getting it again.”

Haines quipped that she thinks her co-host may have wanted a little extra time off. “I laughed because the first day back is really hard for everyone, but when you get Joy and Whoopi, they’re like, ‘Please don’t take me off vacation.’ And then to hear that about Whoopi,” Haines jokes. “But of all ways to end it, work would have been better than COVID. I don’t think it’s bad, she’s gonna be back.”

As the show ushers in its 27th year, it’s an especially poignant marker for Behar, who is the only original panelist still regularly appearing. The comedian was part of the original panelists of the ABC daytime talk show when it premiered in 1997, and, aside from a two-season stint, has remained ever since. 

“I just keep on like a boomerang,” Behar jokes when reflecting on her 25-year run on the series. “This is the 27th year but I was fired for two years; I have to be truthful and honest and accurate. For two years they kicked my butt out of here and then begged me to come back.”

Behar stepped back as a permanent host in 2013, but she continued to guest-host throughout 2014 and 2015. She officially returned to the panelist table for the premiere of the 19th season on Sept. 8, 2015. 

Looking at her current group of co-hosts, Behar tells ET that she’s happy to return because she “likes this crowd a lot.” 

“None of us are crazy,” she says when asked what makes the six of them click, before quickly taking it back. “Well, we’re crazy but we’re not mental, you know? We’re friendly to each other, nobody’s really a troublemaker right now. Even off [the set]. We pretty much agree with each other on a lot of things so, I don’t think that we’re having a fight.”

The View has become synonymous with heated debates, especially when it comes to the differing political views of its co-hosts. But Behar optimistically says she doesn’t see that kind of dispute in the group’s future this election round. “If we had a Trumper on the panel it would’ve been harder but, even Alyssa, who is a big conservative girl, doesn’t believe in [Donald] Trump at all. So that’s easy for us,” she says. 

And if that ever changes, Behar already has a plan for if things get out of hand. “Medication,” she jokes. And if that doesn’t work? “[I’ll get] a facial and [have] somebody rub my legs and feet. Decadence.”

The View season 27 is airing weekdays on ABC.

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