The View has an empty chair for the best reason.
Back in October, we reported that Alyssa Farah Griffin was pregnant.
This joyous news followed years of attempting to conceive.
Now, she and her husband have welcomed their first child. And yes, producers have lined up guest co-hosts while she and her baby bond.
Congratulations!
On Tuesday, February 10, The View co-host Alyssa and her husband, Justin, welcomed their first child.
She gave birth to a son, Justin Patrick Griffin, Jr.
This should come as no real surprise to The View fans.
That very day, Alyssa was absent. And it fell to Whoopi Goldberg to explain to the audience why she was not present.
Alyssa, the EGOT winner explained, had gone into labor.
On Wednesday, February 11, Whoopi once again shared a joyful update.
“The first thing we want to do is start by congratulating Alyssa and her husband Justin on the birth of their baby boy,” she announced.
Whoopi even cited the statistics: “He weighted in at 7 lbs. and 19-and-a-half inches.”
(Is it just us, or did new parents only recently start giving length measurements in addition to weight? When did this become part of the infodump?)
Alyssa even re-shared a clip of Whoopi making the announcement to her Instagram page. Cute!
We all knew that this happy news was coming
Of course, Alyssa going into labor and welcoming her first child is no surprise.
Back in October of 2025, the The View co-host announced her pregnancy.
She and her husband had spent two years trying to conceive.
They went through five rounds of IVF as part of their effort.
Along the way, Alyssa learned that her undiagnosed endometriosis was a contributing factor to her struggles to conceive.
We hope that we do not have to explain that Alyssa will not be returning to work immediately.
Even sitting upright in a chair for a few hours can be a lot when you have just given birth.
(Childbirth is amazing, but it is not glamorous — it involves injuries that take time to heal)
In addition to recovering from childbirth, Alyssa will also be taking this time to bond with her baby.
For these reasons, she’ll be out as a The View co-host for the next few months.
Bring in the rotating guest co-hosts of varying quality
Alyssa’s absence won’t mean that The View is down a panelist.
Instead, we’ll reportedly be seeing rotating guest co-hosts.
Some of them will be welcome faces, like former co-host Abby Huntsman, Whitney Cummings, and Sheryl Underwood.
Others will be more controversial figures, like Trump toady Savannah Chrisley and former The View primary antagonist Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
Fortunately, there’s no reason to believe that this is ABC quietly soft-auditioning a replacement for Alyssa. She’s on maternity leave, and we all look forward to her return.