Debbie Matenopoulos Rejoins ‘The View’ & Revisits Fight With Joy Behar, ‘SNL’ Firing Skit

Debbie Matenopoulos was the guest cohost of the day on Wednesday’s (September 30) edition of The View (subbing in for Whoopi Goldberg, who’s busy filming a movie). In addition to weighing in on the “Hot Topics” of the day, including the Congressional hearing faceplant by Eric Schmitt and the latest in the Lindsay Clancy trial, the former series original also got the chance to trek down memory lane a bit.

“We couldn’t let one of the original view crew stop by for Season 30 without taking a trip down memory lane, so it’s time for another round of ‘Let’s Review,'” Sara Haines announced.

Sunny Hostin then delivered her “hot seat” question for Debbie, asking, “Did you learn the story of Boxing Day from Canadian legend Martin Short, or did a heavyweight boxing champ have to intervene in a brawl between you and another cohost?”

Though Matenopoulos didn’t have the answer right away, Haines expressed, “Oh God, I hope it’s the latter.”

The cohost then rolled footage of Matenopoulos hitting the ring with none other than Joy Behar, and Star Jones had to intervene.

“I remember that, but I don’t remember trying to beat Joy’s ass,” Matenopoulos then said.

“What I put up with to this day,” Behar then joked. “We had fun in those days.”

“We did,” Matenopoulos agreed. “It was such a different show.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who’s relatively new to the program, then said, “We keep hearing about it. By the end of the week, we’re going to be like, ‘Why are we here?!'”

Matenopoulos then showed off her original headshot for the series, which included a bit of decolletage, and agreed that it made her look “like a soap star.” “I think that’s probably [what they were going for],” she said. “They were in the same building as All My Children.”

When invited to share her own memories, though, Matenopoulos had an anecdote that left cohost Hostin’s jaw wide open.

“You know what I wanted to show, though?” she said. “Most of the time, when I’m stopped in the street to talk about The View, it’s not about something that happened on The View. It’s actually something that The View was kind of parodied for. Most of the time, they come up to me and they say, ‘Oh my gosh, the SNL skits!’ So for me, they were crazy. And then they asked me to come on and play myself the same week that I was let go from here. So they fired me on Wednesday. SNL calls me and says, ‘Come on and play yourself. Because guess what? Guess what? We’re gonna make fun of you anyway.'”

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She then showed the clip of herself coming up to the table late, saying, “I had a problem getting past security, and then for some reason, the keys to my dressing room door wouldn’t work. So what’d I miss?” before being told, “You’re fired. You’re not on the show anymore.” Matenopoulos’ answer in the skit was, “Well, I mean that’s cool. Still get paid, right?”

The clip made the other guffaw, to say the least.

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC