Meghan McCain Decides To Change Her View

Meghan McCain has announced live on air that she is quitting ABC's The View after four years to raise her daughter in Washington DC, saying 'this was not an easy decision'. 

DailyMail.com had revealed earlier on Thursday that the 36-year-old was stepping away from the daytime talk show at the end of the month with two years remaining on her contract.  

Her co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro, were not aware prior to Thursday that McCain had resigned, a source told The DailyMail. 

McCain addressed her resignation during the The View's opening segment, saying: 'I'm going to rip the bandaid off'. 

'I am here to tell you - all of my wonderful co-hosts and viewers at home - that this is going to be my last season here at The View. 

'It's not easy to leave but I feel like this is the right decision for me at the moment.' 

 McCain also praised her co-hosts, who she regularly spars with on the show, saying it had been 'one of the greatest, most exhilarating, wonderful privileges' of her life working on The View.

'It is a privilege to work alongside such strong, brilliant, intelligent broadcasters... You are the most talented women on all of television,' she said of her co-hosts.  

 The View and ABC had fought to keep McCain on the show, according to DailyMail.com's source. 

'We have tried to keep her, but she is adamant that now is the right time for her to leave,' they said. 

The Wrap Graphic

While McCain’s comments often trended on Twitter and blew up the internet (including many on these here pages), it doesn’t seem like she had much of an impact when it came to the daytime show’s viewership. But to be fair: “The View” didn’t lose viewers either — at a time when just about every other daytime show has dropped, often by double digits.