Elisabeth Hasselbeck Really Is Being Booted from ‘The View’ + Barbara Walters Is Mad It Was Leaked
Things have been a tad messy for the lineup on 'The View,' with long-running host Joy Behar leaving, Brooke Shields rumored to be taking her place and right-wing conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck facing firing rumors that Barbara Walters herself denied on the show last week.
Publicly, anyway. Behind closed doors? Well, that's another story.
Seems sources are telling Page Six that Hasselbeck is indeed “toast.” And Barbara is pissed it was leaked in the first place.
“ABC is desperate to freshen the show. Ratings are going soft, and research numbers on the stars’ likability are scaring network execs,” claimed an insider, because who needs job security when you get paid to tattle on your network.
“Dumping Joy Behar, who was there 16 years, and Hasselbeck would be the fastest way to do it, they decided. After giving Behar the bad news last week and letting her bow out gracefully, someone leaked the Hasselbeck thing,” the source continued.
“Some enemies [Barbara] has on the show saw their chance to get back at her. [She] was spitting mad that it got mishandled, and called off the firing over [last] weekend.”
This could end with Hasselbeck leaving the show before her contract ends next year, because “the ABC brass believes the show needs to be younged-up fast. They easily could coax her to go early.”
Meanwhile, Ali Wentworth (George Stephanopoulos' actress and comedian wife) is a favorite contender to replace Elisabeth because she's supposedly funny and relatable, and former supermodel Christie Brinkley also really wants Behar's former seat.
Of course a representative for 'The View' had a much different take, saying, “They’ll test out a number of hosts to see who works best with the women and the audience … [Walters] is not the least bit angry. She loves these women and wants what’s best for them. Everything else is speculation. Producers haven’t begun to search for a new co-host. We have no further comment.”
Which we all know is representative-speak for "nothing to see here, move along."