Talk Show Host Exits Fans Have Still Not Recovered From

On Tuesday’s episode of The Talk, Julie Chen announced via video that she will be leaving the talk show effective immediately. After anchoring the CBS show for nine seasons since its inception in 2009, Chen’s exit came as a shock to fans who were hoping she’d stay on despite the misconduct reports against her husband, CBS CEO Les Moonves.

But Chen’s exit isn’t the first dramatic departure on a talk show. From Ann Curry to Barbara Walters, some fans are still reeling over the “loss” of their favorite talk show hosts. Continue scrolling to discover even more talk show host exits.

Barbara Walters – ‘The View’

In an end of an era-type exit, The View creator and host Barbara Walters left the iconic show in May 2014 after 17 years. She was met with a group of legendary women like Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton, along with several former View co-hosts, who all congratulated her and wished her well upon her exit.

“This is my legacy,” Walter said, gesturing to them all. “These are my legacy.”

Michael Strahan – ‘Live With Kelly and Michael’

Kelly Ripa was famously blindsided by co-host Michael Strahan’s controversial exit on Live With Kelly and Michael in April 2016 when he decided to join the cast of Good Morning America full time. After being kept in the dark about his move, Ripa did not show up to Live the next day. The official announcement was that Ripa had the “day off,” although she had reportedly called producers at midnight to say she would not be coming in.

A week later, Ripa returned to the show, calling the situation a “national nightmare.”

“Our long national nightmare is over. I first want to honestly sincerely thank you for welcoming me back to the show. The show of support in this bizarre time has been overwhelming. I needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts. After 26 years with the company, I earned the right,” Ripa said.

Tamar Braxton – ‘The Real’

When Tamar Braxton abruptly announced her departure from The Real in 2016, many wondered if it was due to a possible conflict with her fellow co-hosts Loni Love, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Jeannie Mai and Adrienne Bailon — but the show made it “crystal clear” that Braxton’s exit had nothing to do with her co-stars.

“Tamar Braxton’s contract was not renewed for reasons that will remain privileged and private, and that are between her and the Studio,” a statement from the show said at the time. “However, we would like to make it crystal clear that Ms. Braxton’s departure from the show had nothing to do with her former co-hosts; any suggestion to the contrary unfairly tarnishes them. As always, we wish Tamar and Vince [Herbert] all the best.”

Braxton confirmed on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that the exit was not her decision.

“At the end of the day, I’m just like everybody else, when you hear something that’s devastating and something that’s very close to you,” Braxton said. “I’m a regular person, a regular woman and I have feelings and at the end of the day, I got my heart broken. It just wasn’t by a man.”

Ann Curry – ‘Today’

While the Today show is technically more journalistic than talk shows like The View, Ann Curry’s infamous tearful June 2012 exit from the show is hard to ignore for fans of the genres.

Curry’s (now disgraced) co-host Matt Lauer denied persistent reports that he wanted Curry gone and admitted that NBC botched her exit.

“I don’t think the show and the network handled the transition well. You don’t have to be Einstein to know that,” Lauer told The Daily Beast in 2013. “It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn’t handle a family matter well.”

Journalist Brian Stelter wrote in the book Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV that Curry was ostracized by her colleagues and that Today executive producer Jim Bell put a place in plan to oust her called Operation Bambi.

Rosie O’Donnell – ‘The View’

Rosie O’Donnell left The View not once, but twice under extenuating circumstances that may seem odd to the typical viewer. In 2007, she left following a fiery feud with Donald Trump (10 years before he was sworn in as President of the United States) and a dustup with co-host Elisabeth Hasselback about the Iraq War.

O’Donnell left the infamous fight live on air. “The day it happened, I was definitely crying,” she told Variety later. “I got my stuff and walked out.”

Years later, in 2015, she returned to the show, but lasted just five months before leaving again, citing a desire to focus on her family and health following her split from wife Michelle Rounds.

Aisha Tyler – ‘The Talk’

Fans are still missing Aisha Tyler, who left The Talk in 2017 after admitting she had too much on her plate. With tears in her eyes, she said, “I also have three other series,” referring to her starring roles in Criminal Minds and Archer, as well as her hosting gig of Whose Line Is It Anyway.

“People always go, ‘How to you do all that?’, and I don’t always have an answer,” she said at the time, adding that she loved her time on the show and calling it “such a joy that it never feels like work to me.”

Sara Haines – ‘The View’

Aside from Chen this week, Sara Haines was the most recent talk show host to say goodbye to her show. Haines revealed this summer that she’d be leaving The View in order to head up a new segment on Good Morning America with Michael Strahan called GMA Day.

“I never thought in a million years I would be leaving one dream job for another dream job,” she said, fighting back tears in front of her co-stars and the live studio audience.

“This has been a dream I’ve always had to be on this show,” she said of The View. “Every day I walk out here I’ve never taken it for granted.”

Star Jones – ‘The View’

After settling on a mutually-agreed upon date with Barbara Walters to announce her exit from The View, Star Jones broke her word and announced it two days early in June 2006. Blindsided, Walters made Jones’ dismissal effective immediately.

Afterward, Jones told Larry King that ABC dumped her because it claimed she violated network policy by accepting freebies for her wedding to Al Reynolds in exchange for mentions on The View, but she argued that all mentions were approved by the network.

In her 2008 autobiography, Walters called Jones dishonest for making everyone cover for her after a gastric bypass surgery in 2003.

But the women managed to put the drama behind them, when Jones returned to the show as a guest.

Which talk show host are you missing most? Share your opinion in the comment section below.