Elisabeth Hasselbeck May Be Coaxed to Leave the View "Early"

USMagazine, Monday, March 18, 2013, 6:00am (PDT)

Elisabeth Hasselbeck's days on The View are definitely numbered. More than a week after Us Weekly broke news that the 35-year-old will be leaving the talk show after nine years, New York Post's Page Six confirms that Hasselbeck is indeed "toast" on the show, regardless of Barbara Walters' on-air comments last week. (Walters, 83, said, "We have no plans for Elisabeth to leave this show," but added "when one of you makes the choice to leave, that is your choice, and we will support your decision.")

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"ABC is desperate to freshen the show," a source tells the paper, citing flagging ratings. Hasselbeck's contract is up in 2014, but the source tells the paper that her exit "could be earlier . . . They easily could coax her to go early."

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Indeed, insiders initially told Us that Walters was attempting to "save face" with her denial, and that producers are "just leaving the door open for Elisabeth to announce she is leaving on her own when she is ready . . .They don't want to make her look bad and don't want to make the show look bad for canning her...They just want to make it seem like Elisabeth decided to leave on her own when the announcement comes."

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Potential replacements include Ali Wentworth, Brooke Shields and Christie Brinkley.

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This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Elisabeth Hasselbeck May Be Coaxed to Leave the View "Early"