After a decade as a cast member on ABC's hit daytime talk show "The View," Elisabeth Hasselbeck has said her goodbyes as the star is leaving her role as a host for a new role in "Fox & Friends," USA Today reports.
"I have been a long-time fan of 'Fox & Friends' and am excited to be joining their team in September as it is an honor to call the Fox News Channel my new television home," Hasselbeck said in a written Fox News Channel statement.
On today's episode of "The View," Hasselbeck was led to the table by Barbara Walters, walking arm-in-arm with her now former cast mate for her last time on the panel. After thanking the show's executive producer Bellie Geddie and co-hosts Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shephard and Joy Behar (who announced earlier this year that she too will be leaving the show), Hasselbeck said that "the past 10 years have been nothing short of extraordinary."
"I did some math last night, and I think I've have had over 3,000 days working by your side," she said to Barbara Walters. "I think it's fair to say over the course of a decade I feel as though I have attended the Barbara Walters school of broadcasting journalism. I feel like I have my master's in communications from being next to you. I don't know if there's a program out there that could offer the depth of knowledge, technique and art of interview that you have offered to everyone at this table and especially to me."
Hasselbeck said that producer Geddie "challenged [her] every single day to be my best" and made her "never be fearful of voicing [her] opinion."
To Whoopi Goldberg, she said, "You are one of the most talented artists on the planet...But you are even more loving than you are talented. You are walking unconditional love...I am blessed to have gotten to call myself a friend of yours."
Goldberg in turn told her, "I just think you're the cat's meow. You've been a really good friend to me and I appreciate you," causing Hasselbeck to get emotional.
To Joy Behar, she said, "Joy and I have spent the past 10 years sparring over politics, but you know I have an insane amount of respect for you...I love you. I truly do."
And to Sherri Shepard, who wasn't there today, she said jokingly, "Your protest about this is not working," before going on: "Even when you're not right beside me here, I know you are always with me. You are my sister in Christ, my friend for life and when I see you just be warned I will hug you for probably three and a half days straight."
Hasselbeck first joined the show in 2003, Walters calling her one of the biggest reasons for "The View"'s success.
"I have enormous affection for you," Walters told Hasselbeck, adding that they won't be filling her spot anytime soon, though there will be some guest hosts.
"I just want to leave you with this, thanks," Hasselbeck said. "I'm not the first person to sit in this chair and I will certainly not be the last person to sit in this chair. The past 10 years have been nothing short of extraordinary. I wholeheartedly wish the next person or co-hosts that sit here an extraordinary set of years to come of their own."
Behar joked, "Fox. Gee, won't you be a fish out of water, there?," and asked if she could borrow the speech for her own departure next month. "Just replace your name with mine," Hasselbeck replied.
Speculations about Hasselbeck's political views affecting her removal from the show were shot down in March, according to People, as Walters said it was a "particularly false story."
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