Elisabeth Hasselbeck Leaving ‘The View’ [Rumor]

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is leaving The View.

Rumors started circulating last week that Hasselbeck would be making an early exit from the daytime talk show. Barbara Walters put an end to the rumor but that doesn’t mean that Hasselbeck’s job is secure.

According to the NY Post, the show was planning to let Hasselbeck make the announcement that she was leaving herself. But some of the talk show hosts “enemies” decided to leak the information to the press early. That led to an angry Barbara Walters saying that there were “no plans for Elisabeth to leave this show.”

Only, there are plans.

ABC is hoping to “freshen” up the new show and they have already decided to replace Hasselbeck and Joy Behar. The network wants to part way cordially and give both of their hosts the chance to say goodbye to their fans. They managed to do that with Behar but Hasselbeck never got the chance.

A source said: “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. Some enemies she has on the show saw their chance to get back at her. Barbara was spitting mad that it got mishandled, and called off the firing over [last] weekend.”

ABC is expected to let Hasselbeck go once things settle down on the set of The View.

Do you think that Elisabeth Hasselbeck will be leaving the show?

The Huffington Post reports that ABC is already looking at possible replacements. Ali Wentworth, Christie Brinkley and Brooke Shields are all being considered for the position.

[Image via s_bukley / Shutterstock.com]