It's official, Jenny McCarthy will be the new co-host of "The View".
"We are delighted that Jenny will be joining us as a permanent co-host on 'The View' starting in September," Barbara Walters said in a statement. "Jenny brings us intelligence, as well as, warmth and humor. She can be serious and outrageous. She has connected with our audience and offers a fresh point of view. Jenny will be a great addition to the show as we usher in an exciting new chapter for the view."
Walters announced on Monday's show that McCarthy is opinionated enough to begin the next chapter in "The View" history.
"I'm beyond thrilled to be joining Barbara and the other amazing women at the table," McCarthy said. "I look forward to helping make hot topics a little bit hotter, and showing my mom that my interrupting skills have finally paid off."
The news comes after the departure of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who co-host for 10 years. Hasselbeck will be joining the conservative-leaning show "Fox and Friends" this fall. She appeared in her last episode last Tuesday.
"I have a lot of affection for you," Walters told Hasselbeck during her final appearance on the show. "We feel that you always borough a fresh voice to the show. You stood by your opinion even when things were very heated, and that's not an easy thing to do. You're going to leave a big void at this table, and we're not going to fill this very soon."
McCarthy has guest-hosted the show eight times and appeared on the ABC morning show on 17 different occasions. She'll be joining the show Sept. 9 at the start of the new season.
The show is going through some more extreme changes.
Joy Behar recently announced she was leaving the roundtable after 16 years on the show. She will be leaving when her contract ends in August. Walters will be retiring from the network in 2014, but she will continue to co-executive produce the view with Bill Geddie.
