Was Joy Behar Supposed to Be on ‘Ted Lasso’ or Not?

BELIEVE (Joy Behar when she says she could have been on Ted Lasso).
Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

Earlier this week, Joy Behar revealed on The View’s Behind the Table podcast that she was approached to play the role of Ted Lasso’s mother on the hit Apple TV+ series. But, unfortunately for View stans everywhere, she passed on the gig because she didn’t want to travel to London during a heat wave. “It was too hot, you remember? There was a heat wave going on at that time, like, 100-degree weather, and I’d have to get on a plane and go in the middle of the heat? No,” Behar told producer Brian Teta during the podcast, while also wondering why she was in the mix in the first place: “Is he Italian or something? His name ends with an O.”

But not long after that revelation, Ted Lasso’s Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt were asked about Behar’s comments during a pre-Emmys panel with PEOPLE and IHG Hotels & Resorts, and didn’t seem to know that Behar might have been joining the team. “I… no. Joy Behar? From The View?” Sudeikis asked. “Respectfully, it would be news to us. We just work there,” Hunt chimed in. In any case, the role went to professional mother Becky Ann Baker, who was nominated for an Emmy for her performance and apparently doesn’t mind the heat.