Joy Behar Leaving ABC’s ‘The View’

Joy Behar

After 16 and a half years on The View, Joy Behar is departing ABC’s long-running daytime talk show.

Deadline.com reports Behar’s contract is up in August and she has informed the network that she will not renew it as she is looking to move on to other things, including hosting a new interview show.

Behar is the last original cast member of The View besides co-creator/executive producer Barbara Walters who is still on the panel.

The two started off alternating as the fourth co-host before Behar was named a full-time co-host. In a phone interview, Behar said she felt 16.5 years on The View were enough. “It seemed like the right time,” she said. “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.” And following stints hosting her own shows on HLN and now Current TV, which will end with the network’s takeover by Al Jazeera, Behar is ready to do it again.

“I do like talk shows, I’m interested in talking to people,” she said. “I want to do an intelligent talk show where you have room to breath.” Will that show be on CNN following reports of Behar meeting with new CNN topper Jeff Zucker? Behar would not elaborate beyond saying that she indeed had “a positive meeting” with Zucker and that “CNN would be great place” for her next show.

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