After finishing fourth on Survivor: The Australian Outback in 2001, Elisabeth Hasselbeck did what many reality TV stars hope to do but rarely achieve: she successfully transitioned into show business. First, she landed a coveted gig at The View table from 2003 to 2013, then she made a power move to the Fox & Friends news program.
Despite landing major gigs in television, her days as a talk show host were marred with controversy. Since leaving Fox News in 2015, Hasselbeck has kept a low profile and has yet to return to TV. Here’s the real reason you don’t hear from her anymore.
Hasselbeck kicked off her TV career on a high note. She made a fierce impression on Survivor Season 2, and as host Jeff Probst revealed during an interview with HuffPost, not only was she a fan favorite, but “every guy on the crew fell in love with her. Every guy. We watched this young girl mature into this fighting phenomenon, and everybody wanted to date her. They thought about marrying Elisabeth. It was all in our fantasies.”
Probst noted that the woman he remembers from Survivor isn’t the same person making news today. “Elisabeth’s politics have certainly changed… I’m not sure what to make of where she stands,” he said. “I’m not saying I align with her, but I like that she does not back down… she’s compelling to watch. You’ve got to give her that.”
Snagging the opportunity to transition from reality TV to one of daytime’s biggest talk shows is nothing to scoff at, but Hasselbeck’s accomplishment was shrouded in controversy. During her time on The View, she regularly butted heads with co-host Rosie O’Donnell, and more than once, those differences of opinion triggered shouting matches.
The most explosive moment went down on May 23, 2007 when the two went head-to-head over the war in Iraq. The verbal battle made jaws drop, and after some ten minutes of debate, co-hosts Sherri Shepherd and Joy Behar walked off the set. O’Donnell quit The View soon after that fight. Hasselbeck jumped to Fox & Friends in 2013.
Hasselbeck clearly isn’t interested in letting bygones be bygones. When it was announced in 2014 that O’Donnell would be returning to the round table, Hasselbeck couldn’t hold her tongue.
She called into Fox & Friends while on vacation just to declare, “What could ruin a vacation more than to hear news like this? Here comes to The View the very woman who spit in the face of our military, spit in the face of her own network and really in the face of a person who stood by her and had civilized debates for the time that she was there.”
Hasselbeck also took to Instagram to defend her O’Donnell commentary: “When asked about Barbara Walters retiring, I provided my analysis. When asked about Sherri [Shepherd] and Jenny [McCarthy] announcing their departure, I provided my analysis. When asked about Rosie coming back, I provided my analysis.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: Nicki Swift