Joy Behar Leaves ABC's 'The View'

Joy Behar, one of the original couch members of ABC’s late morning talk show The View, has confirmed that she is leaving the long-running show.

Billed as a comedienne when she first hit The View’s couch 16 and 1/2 years ago, Behar livened the show with her progressive perspective and sharp tongue.

Aside from Barbra Walters, the show’s originator, Behar is the show’s last remaining original cast member.

Behar will finish out this season before she moves on to “other things” that she has wanted to do.

“You reach a point when you say to yourself, ‘Do I want to keep doing this?’ There are other things on my plate I want to do–I’ve been writing a play, I’ve been neglecting my standup,” Behar said Thursday in an interview posted at Deadline.com.

Behar is also soon to end her TV talk show on Current TV once Al Jazeera takes over management of the cable network.

There is speculation that Behar could wind up at CNN.

Behar has been no stranger to outrageous statements over the years. During the late presidential election, she announced that it would be “cool” if Mitt Romney’s house would burn to the ground. Last November she compared religion to drug addiction, and before he sold out to oil billionaires, Behar thought Al Gore’s Current TV network was as wonderful as a woman’s “G-Spot.”

In 2011, the talk show hostess also displayed her knowledge of American history by claiming that the Republican Party has never been “black friendly,” seeming to forget that it was the Republican Party that ended slavery.

In a statement, ABC said, “Joy Behar has been instrumental in the success of The View from the very beginning. We wish her all the best in this next chapter, and are thrilled that we have her for the remainder of the season.”