After months and months of rumors, Elisabeth Hasselbeck has finally admitted she is leaving ABC’s daytime program, The View. Interestingly, the news broke because Fox News Channel executive vice president of programming Bill Shine announced on Tuesday that the TV personality will be joining the new channel this fall, signing on as a panel member on the network's Fox and Friends. She’ll take over Gretchen Carlson’s slot, as the veteran Fox News TV personality is moving on to star in her own daytime show.
We’ve known for a while some major changes were coming to The View. Joy Behar announced back in March that she will be leaving ABC’s show as soon as her contract finishes out in August. At the time, the rumors began to circulate that Hasselbeck might be leaving the show, too. ABC continually did damage control in Hasselbeck’s case, noting that the host had signed a long-term contract and the network would be happy to see her stay for as long as she would like.
Apparently, those rumors had more merit than ABC would have had audiences believe. Fans of Hasselbeck will be sorely disappointed, however, as Hasselbeck will be leaving the daytime program sooner rather than later. According to THR, although she won’t be heading to Fox and Friends until the fall, her last day on The View will be Wednesday.
ABC is also reporting that Barbara Walters had some pretty nice things to say about Hasselbeck concerning her departure on Tuesday.
“When Elisabeth survived Survivor we wanted to make sure she would stay afloat. We have had 10 wonderful years with her and she will now be swimming in new waters. We will miss her and wish her everything good.”
Like Behar and Hasselbeck, Walters has plans to leave The View, as well. Back in May, the veteran TV host spoke out during an episode of the daytime program to announce she has plans to retire in 2014. That brings the sum total of women leaving The View over the next several months to 3. The show has been doing less well in the ratings in recent memory and perhaps some new additions will help the program attract more eyeballs..
Hasselbeck has not always been the most popular panelist on the show since she is a right wing woman among a more liberal cast. However, she was a member of the cast for an extremely long time and fit into the rhythm of the show. Very soon, the lineup will look different, with recent reports indicating that Jenny McCarthy is already in talks to take over for Behar. No doubt with Hasselbeck leaving so abruptly the network will find a way to replace the host and soon.
The View airs weekdays on ABC at 11 a.m. ET.
