Entertainment

Joy is gone

HLN has cut Joy Behar loose after two years, declining to renew her contract.

The Joy Behar Show,” which premiered in 2009, will air new shows at 10 p.m. through mid-December, then will go into repeats through the end of the year.

While her departure is being described as “totally amicable,” insiders say the well-liked Behar “would have been happy” to continue with the show — but that execs at HLN, CNN’s sister station, want stronger ratings at 10 p.m.

And, as we enter an all-important election year, HLN apparently wanted a more politically oriented show in prime time to keep pace with MSNBC and Fox News Channel.

Behar will continue in her day job as a co-host on ABC’s “The View.”

“I am very proud of the show that we created at HLN, and I owe a tremendous thanks to the show team who made it possible,” Behar said in a statement yesterday.

Once Behar’s show ends, HLN will repeat one of its other prime-time shows at 10 p.m. until making some changes further down the line.

“We will have an announcement on the new lineup in the coming weeks,” the network said in a statement.

Behar’s show premiered at 9 p.m. in September 2009 and drew a solid core audience, averaging 526,000 viewers.

It was moved to 10 p.m. last January for the eventual (April) launch of Drew Pinsky’s show, “Dr. Drew,” and was averaging around 445,000 viewers in the later timeslot.

Since last summer, HLN has made a lot of ratings hay with its wall-to-wall coverage of the Casey Anthony and Dr. Conrad Murray trials and seems to be shifting its editorial focus.

“The direction of the network is not in sync with [Behar’s] passions and enthusiasms,” said a source.

There is still a chance that Behar could eventually end up with another project at CNN.

“The company is open to exploring other opportunities with Joy,” a CNN insider said about the possibility.

Behar wasn’t commenting publicly, but she did take to Twitter to express her feelings in a humorous way.

“Thanks for all your support,” she tweeted yesterday. “But you know what they say . . . the show must go off.”