Joy Behar: Why is she leaving ABC’s ‘The View’?

After 16 years, Joy Behar is leaving “The View.”

Behar, the brassy Brooklyn-born comic, announced that she’s leaving ABC’s morning talkfest at the end of her contract in August.

“You reach a point where you say, ‘Do I want to keep doing this?’,” Behar told Deadline.com, which broke the news late Thursday. “There are other things on my plate I want to do -- I’ve been writing a play, I’ve been neglecting my stand-up.” Behar added that she’d be interested in joining CNN, which is being re-engineered by new boss Jeff Zucker, with whom Behar recently took a meeting.

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ABC later confirmed the exit, adding that the network was “thrilled that we have her for the remainder of the season.”

But there may be more to the story. “The View” has been under ratings pressure and there have been rumblings that producers want to shake up the panel soon. With Behar leaving, Barbara Walters is the only cast member whose connection with the show dates to its 1997 launch.

Moreover, Behar has tussled with other cast members in the past. Her spats with former cohost Star Jones were legendary; after she left the show, Jones openly called Behar a “bitch.” Insiders say Behar is likewise on rocky terms with cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck and has had her run-ins with Walters.

Behar, who is 70, has also had a rocky career outside “The View.” “The Joy Behar Show” saw a brief run on HLN that ended in 2011. Her show on Current TV will end as Al Jazeera completes its purchase of the cable network.

What do you think of Behar and “The View”?

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