The View's Exec Producer Breaks Silence On COVID-19 Drama
The September 24 episode of "The View" was one for the books as co-host Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro abruptly left the show due to positive COVID-19 tests. They were actually false positives, but that was not known when the show was on the air.
Joy Behar addressed the audience on September 27 and shed some light on the unexpected turn of events. "So in case you missed it, Friday's show took an unexpected turn when Ana and Sunny's COVID tests came back positive while we were on the air. Live TV, ladies and gentlemen," she explained. "We want to thank Vice President Harris and her incredible team working with us to make sure everyone was safe and for still doing an interview with us under extraordinary circumstances. We never came into contact with the vice president, nothing, and we followed all protocols and precautions to ensure her safety. Since that show ended however this is the update — we were all given numerous, numerous COVID tests."
Sara Haines chimed in with, "My nostrils are so sensitive." Behar added, "It's like up your nose with a rubber hose." Behar confirmed the false positives, noting "everyone is safe and COVID free. No one's got it, it was a mistake of some sort."
Behar and Haines weren't the only ones to speak about the incident — executive producer Brian Teta spoke up to issue an apology. Keep reading for more details.
'The View' executive producer had to react quickly on set
"The View" co-host Joy Behar asked executive producer Brian Teta how he was holding up after Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro's false positive COVID-19 tests caused them to suddenly leave the show on September 24.
"I'm fine, it was just an unbelievable set of circumstances and we found out moments before we came back out on the air and in that moment all I could think of was that we had to keep hosts safe and we had to keep the vice president safe," he told Behar. "She could not walk out no matter what and that led to some really awkward television that I'd like to have back if I could."
"I really want to acknowledge and apologize to Sunny and Ana cuz in the midst of all this chaos they were put in this position where they had this information put out on television and then, to make it even worse, turned out not to be true later on," Teta continued. "It was false positives, so it was unfortunate that mistakes were made, but I can happily say that we have very vigorous health and safety protocols that everyone is regularly tested and I'm just so relieved that you guys are healthy and everyone is healthy and nobody was ever in danger." Clearly, Teta is glad to have this situation behind him.