ABC viewers couldn’t help but notice Joy Behar leaving the table on The View during an interview with Carrie Underwood, which came a year after the daytime host criticized the singer’s performance at Donald Trump‘s second presidential inauguration.
During the Tuesday, March 24, episode of The View, American Idol‘s Underwood, 43, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan were in attendance for an interview. Behar, 84, who was on the show earlier in the episode, left the table alongside colleague Sara Haines and only returned after the interview was wrapped up.
The View panelists have previously opted out of certain interviews to allow for guests to have more room at the table. Entertainment Weekly, meanwhile, reported that the move was a “production decision” as a result of three interview subjects being seated at the table with the cohosts.
Viewers, however, couldn’t help but notice that Behar narrowly avoided a run-in with Underwood over a year after publicly calling out Underwood’s decision to perform at Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
“I wouldn’t do it — even though I cannot sing,” Behar said at the time. “I would not normalize him. She says, ‘I love our country.’ How do you love your country and support and normalize somebody who was a convicted felon, who really wants to destroy the country, in my opinion?”
She continued: “I don’t understand how you say you love your country at the same time as you normalize this convicted felon. … OK, fine. And I would not be the person to say don’t do it because I believe in free speech and everything about it. I personally would not do it. No one’s asked me, but that’s another story.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, meanwhile, called Underwood’s choice a smart business move.
“Seventy-five million people voted for Trump. Artists tend to skew left-leaning,” she said. “So she’s overnight going to become an icon of MAGA and the American right. She’s probably gonna make a lot of money off of it. So I get why she did it.”
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Griffin, 36, went on to defend Underwood. “I personally hope we’re moving beyond the era of politics where we want to cancel people’s livelihood because we don’t like their politics,” she concluded. “If you have a problem, you register your complaint by not downloading her songs and not going to her shows.”
Elisabeth Hasselbeck later took to social media to slam Behar’s comments.
“That @TheView @JoyVBehar needs to simmer down off my friend,” Hasselbeck, 48, wrote via X, adding that she wasn’t happy with the notion of “calling Carrie Underwood Un-American” despite Behar not using that phrase.
Underwood did not publicly respond at the time. Us Weekly has reached out to reps for Underwood, Behar and The View for comment.
The View airs weekdays on ABC.