The View‘s 27th season premiered on Tuesday, but Whoopi Goldberg’s seat at the table was vacant.
After testing positive for COVID-19, the show’s longstanding co-host, 67, was forced to miss the show’s premiere.
“As you can see, Whoopi is not here. She has COVID. It’s back, it’s back!” co-host Joy Behar expressed to the audience referring to an upsurge of COVID cases across the United States.
Behar, 80, immediately reassured audiences that Goldberg is doing well and will return to the show soon. “She’s on the mend, she’s on the tail end and will probably be back this week. But sorry she’s not here, for those of you who were looking forward to seeing her,” she stated.
@CollinRugg posted a tweet on September 5th regarding Goldberg being down with COVID, included with a short 15-second clip of the co-hosts making the announcement on The View:
JUST IN: The View announces that co-host Whoopi Goldberg is not present due to getting COVID, just one day after Jill Biden announced her infection as well.
They're prepping you for ‘the need for mail in ballots' in 2024.
“As you can see Whoopi is not here… she has COVID! Yes!… pic.twitter.com/lkWGiJQtl4
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 5, 2023
Many frequent viewers all over the country will miss the show as well: The View did not air today in markets affected by the continued dispute happening between Disney and Spectrum.
Audiences seeking to tune in to the daytime show in New York City, for example, were met with the same Spectrum message that has been running on the ABC affiliate network all weekend: “The Walt Disney Company, owner of this channel, has removed their programming from Spectrum,” begins the message. “We offered Disney a fair deal, and yet they continue to demand an excessive increase.”
Disney clearly disagrees, and in its most recent statement, the company suggested that disgruntled consumers of the 18 Disney networks and eight ABC stations affected by the carriage conflict switch from Spectrum to Hulu + Live TV or streaming TV bundles like YouTube TV.
Nevertheless, here’s what Spectrum viewers didn’t catch during the opening minutes of today’s episode of The View: Co-host Joy Behar, who was temporarily in the moderator seat normally occupied by Goldberg, kicked off the show by commenting on the fresh set (which included a sizable, gleaming table she humorously compared to a casino blackjack table). “This is the premiere show of our 27th year,” said Behar. “I was here for all of it, except for two when they canned me, when they sacked my behind.”
Watch the first few minutes of the opening in today’s episode below in @TheView’s tweet on X (previously Twitter):
New season, new mug, new table! ✨ @TheView co-hosts take a seat at the #HotTopics table for season 27! https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/3hAVw3148Z
— The View (@TheView) September 5, 2023
Goldberg was diagnosed with Covid at the beginning of 2022 and again in November 2022. In her last recent return to the show, she mentioned that the second occurrence was particularly more rough. “You can get boosted within an inch of your life and then the next thing you know you got Covid again,” Goldberg stated last fall while sporting an “Over It” sweatshirt.
