Whoopi Goldberg made a surprise early return to The View on Monday, two days before her entire two-week suspension was set to end following global backlash over comments she made about the Holocaust last month.
The 66-year-old host missed just eight episodes after ABC announced it was benching the comedian for two weeks – possibly ten episodes – following her last broadcast on February 1, where she apologized for saying the Holocaust was ‘not about race’ on the previous day’s show.
But on Monday, Goldberg was back on the air after missing just eight shows. ABC did not immediately return a comment regarding her early return as of Monday afternoon.
‘Well, hello, hello, hello and welcome to The View. And yes, I am back… And I missed you all, too,’ Goldberg said to viewers and her co-hosts at the top of the show.
‘I’ve got to tell you, there’s something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this, because we are The View and this is what we do. And sometimes we don’t do it as delicately as we could.’
‘But it’s five minutes to get in important information about topics. And that’s what we try to do every day. And I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away,’ she continued.
‘And I’m telling you, people reached out from places that made me go, “Wait, wait, what? Really? OK!” And it was amazing and I listened to everything everybody had to say and I was very grateful, and I hope it keeps all the important conversations happening because we’re going to keep having tough conversations.’
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Whoopi Goldberg addresses viewers after making surprise appearance on ABC’s The View on Monday, two days before her two-week suspension was supposed to expire
The 66-year-old host said ‘we’re going to keep having tough conversation’ following global backlash over her comments that the Holocaust was ‘not about race’
Whoopi Goldberg arrives at ABC Studios on West 57th Street in Manhattan on Monday
Goldberg was in her usual seat The View with her co-hosts on Monday, her first episode since being suspended for two weeks following the February 1 show
Goldberg jumps in a waiting car after filming Monday’s episode of The View
Goldberg was placed on a two-week, unpaid suspension after the infamous January 31 episode by ABC boss Kim Godwin, who said she wanted to put an end to a ‘culture’ where The View host and her colleague Joy Behar could ‘say and do whatever they wanted’, insiders told DailyMail.com.
DailyMail.com reached out to ABC for comment about Goldberg’s surprise early return.
Goldberg had faced a revolt from staffers who felt she had crossed the line with her tone-deaf apology over her Holocaust comments.
She didn’t shy from the controversy upon her return.
‘It’s not always pretty, as I said, and it’s not always as other people would like to hear, but it is an honor to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important,’ Goldberg said.
‘They’re important to us as a nation, and to us more so as a human entity. So, happy Valentine’s Day, y’all! And we’re going to get started, because that’s what we do.’
Goldberg thanked Darlene Love for her performance on the show, then after the break, there was a shopping segment with co-host Sarah Haines, after the next break, Whoopi appeared back on the show (which purports to be live) to sign off, but in reality she was already in her car and gone by the time that aired.
Whoopi Goldberg sparked outrage by claiming that the Holocaust was ‘not about race’ because it’s ‘two white groups of people’ during episode of The View on January 31
Sarah Haines tried to point out that the Nazis considered themselves the superior race over Jews, but Goldberg did not take her point on-board
The controversy began when Whoopi claimed on-air that the Holocaust was ‘not about race.’ She posted a Twitter apology, then apologized on-air the next day on February 1 but was suspended after the show.
The outspoken host was due to lose $192,000 for the two-week suspension, sources told DailyMail.com.
Reactions on social media to her return were mixed, with many feeling the suspension was not enough of a punishment, and some going so far as to call for Goldberg’s firing.
‘She should not return #boycotttheview,’ one person tweeted.
‘Such BS, She Should be FIRED, Permanently FIRED,’ another commenter offered.
‘@TheView needs to tell the truth. No one cares about “tough conversations.” We care about the panel saying things that are FALSE.’
‘All of her co-hosts are glad she’s back, no one else,’ wrote another person on Twitter.
‘Antisemitic conversations are tough conversations’ tweeted by a Twitter user by the name of Ron Huck.
The talk show host had tried to walk back her comments on her final show before the suspension.
‘On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man’. I should have said it is about both,’ she said.
,