Joy Behar’s Return Date Revealed as The View Refutes Report That Producers Wanted to Fire Her

Joy Behar isn't going anywhere.

via: EW

Despite a new report indicating that show producers wanted to fire her from the panel, Entertainment Weekly has learned that the only place Joy Behar is going is right back to her seat on The View’s Hot Topics table.

EW has learned through a View representative that “there is no truth” to a recent article indicating that Behar was under consideration to exit the show amid an alleged “panel shake-up” with “producers looking to make the show less shrill and more inviting to a broader audience.”

The report noted that concerns grew amid the 84-year-old’s injury in late September, as she dislocated her shoulder and subsequently missed several weeks of the program, which she hasn’t appeared on since Sept. 30.

Producer Brian Teta additionally revealed on Monday’s edition of the show’s Behind the Table podcast (above) that Behar will return to the show for the first time in almost a month.

“Joy is back,” Teta said in the episode’s closing moments. “We’ve missed her. We’ll see you tomorrow!”

EW has learned from a source that show staff — and Behar’s fellow panelists — are all looking forward to having her back at the Hot Topics table, with the cohosts expressing on the air last week that they deeply miss the comedian’s presence on the air and behind the scenes.

“We’ll have something special when you know you’re on your way back. Hurry back,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg said last week. “It’s not the same at the table. We miss you, we do.”

Earlier in October, Goldberg delivered another message from Behar, who missed her own birthday episode on Oct. 7 as she recovered from her dislocated shoulder.

“She says, ‘Thanks to everyone who inquired about my recovery. If I was still 21, I’d have bounced back the next day,’” Goldberg noted at the time. “‘But, since I’m an old bat, recuperating takes a bit longer. I plan to be back next week to fill everyone in on all the gory details.’”

Legal expert and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin first noted during the Oct. 1 broadcast (which Goldberg was also absent for, as she was out filming a movie for Netflix) that Behar injured her shoulder and wouldn’t be on the show that day. Both View stars’ absences led to Hostin making a rare appearance in the moderator chair, which Goldberg and Behar usually trade off on their respective days off each week.

Behar is an original View cohost who recently broke a record by becoming the longest-running female host of an American television program in history, having first joined The View alongside Barbara Walters in 1997. Since then, Behar has only sat out for two seasons, from 2013 to 2015, when she was temporarily fired and later returned.

Behar returns to The View on Tuesday at 11 a.m.