Elisabeth Hasselbeck Staying Put on 'The View'

Sarah D. Bunting

Monday's episode of "The View" addressed the rumors right up front: Yes, longtime host Joy Behar is leaving the show -- but Elisabeth Hasselbeck isn't going anywhere.

Whoopi Goldberg wasted no time bringing up the "crazy weekend" the "View"-related news cycle had created for all five ladies, then kicked it right over to Barbara Walters, "since this is Barbara Walters's show, and she is here." (Walters, confined to quarters for a month with chicken pox and a concussion, just returned to the show last week.)

Walters spent a few minutes reminiscing about how she and Joy Behar "started this show together," and her feeling that she "discovered" Behar, in a way. "I want what's best for you," Walters said, but Behar's departure is of course "bittersweet."

Behar joked that she was married for 16 years, and "I don't like my jobs to last longer than my marriage," then did a humorous top-ten list on why she's leaving the show (for our money, #10 -- "ABC won't let me drink on the air like Hoda and Kathie Lee" -- was the funniest).

[Related: Is Brooke Shields in line for the open host spot?]

But all that was just preamble to the announcement we'd really been waiting for -- whether Elisabeth Hasselbeck was following Behar out the door. She isn't. Walters called the mutterings "a particularly false story," and objected in particular to the idea that Hasselbeck would leave because the other co-hosts can't tolerate her conservative leanings. "We value and appreciate her point of view," Walters said, "it's important to us," before saying in so many words, "We have no plans for Elisabeth to leave the show."

Hasselbeck herself didn't say much during the segment, so you have to wonder what kind of phone calls were flying over the weekend, but the subject quickly moved on to former "View"-er Lisa Ling's newborn before Whoopi threw to commercial.

Do you think we've heard the last of the "Hasselbeck's out" rumors? Does her "rapping" of a sponsor segment mean you want her to leave the show? Talk it out in the comments.

Watch the segment for yourself right here:

"The View" airs weekdays on ABC; check local listings.