Joy Behar Says Barbara Walters Was Disappointed That She Didn’t “Sit There and Take It on” During Infamous Bill O’Reilly Interview on ‘The View’

The View remembered Barbara Walters‘ legacy on today’s episode, welcoming back previous co-hosts to share stories and memories of the trailblazing talk show creator. Walters, who launched The View in 1997 and remained on the show until 2014, died at 93 on Friday (Dec. 30). Days after her passing, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin celebrated her life on live TV with other women who’d also sat at the Hot Topics table in the past.

One of them, Sherri Shepherd, who co-hosted The View from 2007 to 2014, looked back on her time with Walters fondly, telling the panel she felt “so protective of this woman who was so protective all the time of me.”

In one specific instance, she said she felt Walters’ sense of calm when the show was thrown into disarray during a 2010 Bill O’Reilly segment. As the co-hosts discussed a possible mosque near Ground Zero, Behar and Goldberg walked off the set, much to Shepherd’s surprise.

“I also remember a time when Bill O’Reilly came on the show, and he said something about the Muslims. I think Whoopi, you were the first to walk out. And then Joy walked out,” Shepherd recalled, as Behar corrected her, noting, “It was the other way around. I walked out, she came after me.”

Shepherd continued, “I remember sitting there going, you know I’m the last hired. You know what they say about the last hired: the first fired. I’m not walking off this show!”

She added, “I sat there, Elisabeth [Hasselbeck] and I, terrified. Thank goodness Barbara Walters was right there to like, just hold it down. Cause I was like, I’m new here. I don’t know what to do.”

Behar told her, “You know, Sherri, she did not like that we did that, remember? She said, ‘Why did you do that? You should sit there and take it on,’ and I said, ‘I couldn’t sit there. My behind propelled out of the seat from him.’”

While her boss was less than pleased with her stunt, Behar said Walters came around in the end.

“But then, there was so much publicity around it, she was fine with that,” she said.

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.