‘The View’: Why Alyssa Farah Griffin Missed Thursday’s Episode and When She Will Return

The View‘s Hot Topics table looked a bit emptier this week. On Thursday, Alyssa Farah Griffin was absent from the long-running ABC talk show, leaving many viewers wondering where she was and when she would return. Thankfully, it seems Griffin’s absence will be short-lived, with her co-host Whoopi Goldberg sharing at the start of the show that Griffin was out sick.

“Alyssa is not here today, she’s out. She’ll be back probably tomorrow. She’s not feeling well,” Goldberg told fans of Griffin, who did appear in a pre-recorded interview with John Legend. Griffin herself updated fans on her condition and absence on her Instagram Stories, where she shared a picture of her dog, Herbie, cuddled in a pile of blankets. Overtop the image, Griffin shared, “out sick with a cold but don’t feel bad for me: this is my view.”

This is not the first time Griffin, the show’s Republican panelist, has missed The View. Back in March, Griffin had several absences after she was diagnosed with COVID and then suffered a case of rebound Covid. Upon her first absence on March 22, Goldberg told viewers Hello and welcome to The View. Alyssa is not here because, unfortunately, she has Covid. Yeah, it’s still around.” Her seat at the Hot Topics table was vacant again beginning March 30.

“Unfortunately, Alyssa is not with us again because she’s got Covid. Listen, we keep telling people it’s not gone, it’s still out there, so do pay attention, ‘cos it pops up and wants to give you a kiss,” Goldberg said at the time, with Sunny Hostin adding, “She was fine, she took Paxlovid, and so she has one of those rebound cases that we hear so much about now.”

Griffin has been a staple on The View since the summer of 2022, when she and Ana Navarro were confirmed as full-time hosts following the departure of Meghan McCain, who departed the show in August 2021. Griffin joined The View as its 23rd co-host in 25 years after having held several guest-co-hosting stints alongside panelists Goldberg, Hostin, Joy Behar, and Sara Haines.

At the time her co-hosting position was confirmed, Griffin, a former White House Director of Strategic Communications and Assistant to President Donald Trump, said, “if anyone had ever told me I’d be sitting at a table with Whoopi Goldberg, I would have said, ‘You are crazy.’ It is such an honor to be with you ladies every day on this set, and it’s particularly exciting for me today. I was trying to come up with the word to describe how I feel about this, and ‘honored’ is all that comes to mind.”