‘The View’ announces Whoopi Goldberg has COVID during return to virtual taping
The daytime talk show will not be taped in front of a live studio audience this week.
ABC’s The View is kicking off the new year with remote broadcasting amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.
The daytime talk show will not be taped in front of a live studio audience this week, with co-host Joy Behar announcing during the first episode of 2022 that fellow co-host Whoopi Goldberg contracted the virus, Mediaite reports.
“Well, you know, they say there’s no place like home for the holidays and that’s exactly where we are today, so Happy New Year from all of our living rooms,” Behar said on Monday’s episode.
She also noted that “this Omicron thing is all over the place,” so the hosts could be serving up the show from the comforts of their own homes for more than a week.
“Why am I here instead of Whoopi?” Behar continued. “Well Whoopi, unfortunately, tested positive over the break, but she’ll be back probably next week. But since she’s vaxxed and boosted, her symptoms have been very, very mild.”
The View’s producers came under scrutiny in September when co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro tested positive for COVID-19 moments before an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. Both women were rushed off the set, but it was later revealed that the positive tests were inaccurate.
theGrio reported that Behar, Sara Haines, Hostin and Navarro were seated at The View table ready for what would’ve been Harris’ first live televised, in-studio interview. Suddenly, show producers asked Hostin and Navarro to leave the table and walk off the set. Producers were coy as to why Hostin and Navarro were being pulled from the show.
“This is going to be a major news story any minute now,” Behar said when the show returned from commercial break. She then explained that Hostin and Navarro — who are both fully vaccinated — had tested positive for breakthrough cases of COVID. Behar and Haines were then left to entertain a live audience and millions of viewers as producers apparently scrambled to work with Secret Service to ensure the safety of the vice president.
The interview with Harris would go on, with Behar and Haines as the lone hosts on set while Harris appeared virtually. Days later, Hostin and Navarro’s positive COVID results turned out to be false, theGrio reported. Navarro took to her Instagram to let fans know that she received a test result that was not accurate.
“[I] got my third negative PCR test just a few minutes ago and came to the airport to fly home,” Navarro said. “Obviously, what happened yesterday was a false positive. A very public, very inopportune, very melodramatic false positive. But fortunately, we’ve now tested three times. All three have been negative.”
On Monday’s episode of The View, Navarro acknowledged her mother who passed away during The View’s holiday break.
“I’m not sure any of us are ever ready to lose a parent. I’m sad, Joy. I’m heartbroken. I wish my mom had been in good health a little longer and able to enjoy her family, which is what she loved the most,” Navarro said.
This article contains additional reporting from theGrio’s Matthew Allen and Gerren Keith Gaynor.
