Joy Behar missed “The View” this week after dislocating her shoulder, with Sunny Hostin filling in as moderator and telling viewers the longtime cohost is recovering and will return soon.
The absence was explained on the Oct. 1 episode of the ABC daytime talk show. Hostin took Behar’s moderator seat and delivered the health update on air, while former cohost Sherri Shepherd joined the panel as a guest.
Whoopi Goldberg was out as well, filming a movie. That left Hostin joking that the job fell to her by default.
“Unfortunately, our dear friend Joy dislocated her shoulder,” Hostin said, adding that Behar was “recovering and will be back soon.”
“The two OGs are out today, so apparently the job went to the next oldest, or let's say seasoned, cohost,” she said.
USA TODAY reported the on-air explanation and said it reached out to Behar’s representatives for a further update. No response was detailed in that account. How the shoulder was dislocated, and exactly when or where the injury happened, were not described beyond the recovery note tied to this week’s missed shows.
Behar, 83, is an original cohost of “The View,” which debuted in 1997 with Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, and Debbie Matenopoulos. She has remained a fixture across decades of cast changes and political fights that define the show’s brand.
The program returned for its 30th season on Sept. 8. Behar marked her 28th season around that return, and Goldberg told the panel Behar had hosted more seasons of an American talk show than any other woman. The table applauded the milestone.
That continuity was already a theme after ABC confirmed the Season 30 cohost lineup following weeks of shakeup talk. Weeks after the on-air celebration of Behar’s longevity, she was off the set with a serious injury.
This was not the first time Behar’s physical condition came up on the air this year. On a July 6 broadcast, she told viewers she had been dealing with dizziness and had tried acupuncture.
“I walk and I'm dizzy. Has anyone noticed, I walk like I'm drunk? I'm not drinking. I don't drink,” Behar said. She added, “Between the Botox, the Ozempic and the acupuncture, I'm, like, full of needles, more than a drug addict.” Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin joked at the time that Behar sometimes needed help getting to her seat.
Earlier this year Behar also took a planned break to travel to Europe, including Paris and London, for the stage play “My First Ex-Husband.” Guest cohosts during that stretch included Sheryl Underwood and Kara Swisher. The current absence is different: it is framed as recovery from a dislocated shoulder, not a scheduled trip.
Hostin, who has drawn attention on and off the show for past legal revelations and pointed political commentary, was the one left to steady the Oct. 1 broadcast. She has previously discussed her time as a holdout juror in a notorious New York case and has mixed personal career fights with on-air argument, including her account of that jury service and separate disputes over her writing projects.
Shepherd’s guest turn put another familiar face at the table while two senior cohosts were away. For a show built on live reaction and permanent chemistry, substitute chairs are a stopgap, not a substitute for the regular lineup.
Behar has joked for years about aging in public on the same set. She has recalled telling Walters, “We're going to get old on the show,” and remembered Walters answering, “You're going to get old anyway.” She has also said, “All I can say is that I was here when the show was in black and white.”
Those lines fit a career sold on endurance. They do not answer the practical questions around this injury. Viewers still have no public detail on the mechanism of the dislocation, a firm return date beyond “soon,” or a statement from her representatives after press outreach. Hostin’s role was to keep the episode moving and pass along the recovery message, not to run a medical briefing.
Daytime television runs on routine. When a permanent voice drops out without a clear timeline, the panel improvises and the audience is asked to wait. That is where “The View” stands until Behar is actually back in her chair, not when a cohost says she will be.
