Joan Rivers says she was surprised by Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy exiting “The View,” and thinks the show shouldn’t have let Elisabeth Hasselbeck go.
“I was on the last show before they got fired,” Rivers said in a HuffPost Live appearance. “It was out of nowhere. How about that? They blew the show up.”
As TheWrap reported last week, it’s a little more complicated than that: Shepherd turned out ABC’s final contract offer, and the network decided against renewing McCarthy’s, according to people familiar with the situation.
“Is it just ratings?” asked HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill.
“It has to be, it has to be,” Rivers said.
Also read: Elisabeth Hasselbeck ‘Shocked’ by Sherri Shepherd’s Departure From ‘The View’ (Video)
“I don’t know,” she added. “All I do know is I liked it when it had Elisabeth on, because Elisabeth represented a whole other group. You know, a very conservative (group), and I thought it was great the way it was. Leave it alone.”
Hill wondered if Rosie O’Donnell might come back.
“Rosie and Whoopi, I want to see that,” Rivers said.
Rivers said the show should hire another conservative. “And maybe an Indian,” she added. “From Asia.”
She also said McCarthy was good on the show, and that she didn’t know why she was leaving after just a year.
“I don’t know who’s behind what, who the hell knows?” she said. “But it’s sad, I hate to see it, because I really like ‘The View.’”