Joy Behar, the 83-year-old co-host of ABC’s The View, is off the air after suffering a dislocated shoulder in a backstage fall on the show’s set. Her representative confirmed the injury to Page Six, the New York Post-affiliated outlet, and said she would be out for roughly a week after missing her Thursday, October 1 appearance.
The representative described the incident simply: “Joy caught a heel backstage but is on the mend and should be back on the show mid next week.” On the more serious question of whether bones were broken, the rep offered some relief, adding, “Her shoulder wasn’t broken and is back in place and she is excited to be back at the table as quickly as possible.”
Sunny Hostin Tells the Audience, Gasps Follow
Co-host Sunny Hostin addressed the absence at the top of the show, giving viewers a bit more detail than the official statement. “So, Whoopi [Goldberg] is still out filming a movie,” Hostin said, before delivering the news: “And, unfortunately, our dear friend Joy dislocated her shoulder.” The studio audience responded with an audible gasp.
Hostin quickly tried to lighten the mood, noting that as the next oldest host on the panel, in her late 50s, she had been put in charge. She quipped that she preferred the word “seasoned” when describing her age. It was a fair attempt at damage control, and you can hardly blame her for trying to keep spirits up with two co-hosts out at once. Running a talk show shorthanded is rough, even when the talk show in question spends most of its airtime complaining about the president.
For more on Joy Behar’s on-set shoulder injury, the full account from her representative and co-host Hostin lays out what is known so far.
Behar’s Health Concerns Didn’t Start Backstage
The shoulder injury may be Behar’s most visible health setback, but it isn’t the first she has discussed publicly. Back in early July, Behar told The View audience that she had been dealing with serious and persistent dizziness, and that nothing, including acupuncture, had resolved it. She described her situation in colorful terms: “I walk and I’m dizzy. Has anyone noticed, I walk like I’m drunk? I’m not drinking. I don’t drink. Between the Botox, the Ozempic and the acupuncture, I’m, like, full of needles, more than a drug addict.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in at the time to joke that Behar often needs help getting to her seat on set. The image of a staffer guiding a dizzy 83-year-old past the backstage obstacles, including, apparently, heels and unforgiving floors, does raise a reasonable question about whether the production team is doing everything it can to keep the set safe for its oldest talent.
What Comes Next for Behar and the Show
According to her representative, Behar is expected to return to The View sometime around the middle of next week, assuming her recovery stays on track. Hostin told the audience Behar “is recovering and will be back soon.”
From a conservative standpoint, wishing anyone a swift and full recovery from a real physical injury is simply the right thing to do, full stop. Behar’s politics are her own business, and a dislocated shoulder is not a punchline. What the episode does illustrate, however, is that the women running the most reliably left-wing table on daytime television are, at the end of the day, real people dealing with real health challenges. Whether ABC has a solid plan for the long-term health and safety of its veteran on-air talent is a fair question for the network’s management to answer.
The best thing this show could do is cancel themselves and save American’s from all the cackling hens.
