Why Joy Behar “Was Glad to Be Fired” From The View in 2013

Joy Behar took her firing from The View in stride—in fact, she can’t even remember what happened. 

After holding her seat on the daytime talk show since its inception in 1997, Behar was unceremoniously axed in 2013, but she wasn’t complaining. 

“I was glad to be fired,” she told TIME on July 27. “I was basically was sick of the show at that point for some reason, I don’t even remember why.”

In fact, in Ramin Setoodeh‘s 2019 book Ladies Who Punch, a tell-all about behind-the scenes drama at The View, Behar told the author, “I had been planning to get out of there” and noted that she was “just bored.”

However, when the show’s ratings started to drop in her absence, former The View executive producer Hilary Estey McLoughlin knew exactly what she needed to do.

“I just knew that we needed to get back into the cultural conversation,” she revealed. “I knew [Behar] was going to be the person who could actually do that. She’s always been the person who says what the audience is thinking but is afraid to say.” 

Behar eventually returned to the show in 2015, where she’s remained ever since.