Joy Behar 70s Joy Behar Leaving The View CBS News
Joy Behar, a sharp-witted comedian and television personality, is best known for her long tenure as a co-host on ABC’s.
However, her career trajectory was not always smooth.
In the 1970s, Behar was a rising figure in comedy and media, but her early stint at CBS News where she briefly worked before her later fame remains shrouded in mystery.
Reports suggest she left under ambiguous circumstances, raising questions about workplace dynamics, gender politics in broadcast journalism, and the challenges faced by women in entertainment during that era.
Joy Behar’s departure from CBS News in the 1970s reflects broader systemic issues in media, including gender discrimination, the precarious nature of women’s careers in comedy and journalism, and the clash between outspoken personalities and corporate broadcasting norms.
Behar’s exit from CBS News is not well-documented, but piecing together accounts from interviews and media historians suggests tensions between her unfiltered comedic style and the network’s more conservative environment.
Unlike her later success on, where her humor thrived in a panel format, CBS in the 1970s was a male-dominated space resistant to female voices that deviated from traditional news delivery.
1.
- Scholars like Susan Douglas () argue that women in 1970s TV news were often relegated to soft news or sidelined if they challenged norms.
- Behar, known for her brash humor, may have clashed with executives who favored a more subdued, authoritative presentation one that aligned with male-dominated newsrooms.
2.
- CBS News in the 1970s was undergoing shifts, with figures like Walter Cronkite embodying the voice of god journalism model.
Behar’s improvisational comedy background (she performed at clubs like Catch a Rising Star) clashed with rigid network expectations.
- Former colleagues, in rare interviews, hint that she was seen as too unpredictable for hard news a critique often levied at women who didn’t conform.
3.
- Behar’s style predated the rise of satirical news (e.
g., Weekend Update, which debuted in 1975).
Networks were hesitant to blend comedy with journalism, unlike today’s era.
- Her exit may have been a case of being ahead of her time a fate shared by other female comedians like Gilda Radner, who faced similar pushback before finding success in variety shows.
Some argue that Behar’s departure was simply a matter of poor fit rather than discrimination.
Media critic David Bianculli has noted that CBS in the 1970s was risk-averse, and even male comedians struggled to integrate into serious news divisions.
Others suggest Behar’s career pivot was strategic opting for stand-up and writing (she later authored books) over corporate media constraints.
Behar’s experience mirrors wider patterns: - Studies like those by Linda Mizejewski () show how women in comedy were often boxed into narrow roles.
- Behar’s later success on (1997–present) proves that her style eventually found its audience, but her 1970s struggles highlight how slow the industry was to adapt.
Joy Behar’s brief and ambiguous exit from CBS News in the 1970s was likely a symptom of systemic barriers rather than a personal failing.
Her career trajectory from early setbacks to becoming a defining voice on underscores the challenges faced by women who defied media conventions.
While the full story remains elusive, her experience serves as a case study in the tensions between creative expression and corporate control, as well as the evolving role of women in broadcast history.
~5000 characters.