Who

Reality-show-contestant-turned-TV-host Hasselbeck is the youngest—and dumbest—host of The View.

Backstory

Hasselbeck (née Elisabeth Filarski) was a 23-year-old Boston College grad and Puma employee living in Boston when she earned a spot as a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback. She parlayed her fourth-place finish into a job with the Style Network, hosting Stylemakers and The Look for Less, before trying out to replace View co-host Lisa Ling and winning the gig in 2003.

Of note

Hasselbeck has played the conservative counterpoint on The View since her first day. Her political platform: creationism and the war in Iraq, good; abortion and gay marriage, bad. But her views only really earned her major attention after arch-liberal Rosie O'Donnell's arrival on the show in September 2006. The two promptly started engaging in on-air skirmishes over matters weighty and inane; in their most epic encounter in May 2007, Rosie called Hasselbeck "cowardly," and a choked-up, red-faced Elisabeth exploded: "Don't call me a coward!" Rosie quit the show two days later, and was replaced by another liberal, Whoopi Goldberg, but so far Hasselbeck's disagreements with her have been more civil. And now Hasselbeck has someone else in her corner to quote scripture with, recently installed co-host and fellow intellect Sherri Shepherd.

Personal

In 2002 Elisabeth married her college sweetheart Tim Hasselbeck, the Arizona Cardinals' backup quarterback. (That makes her brother-in-law Seattle Seahawks starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.) Together with their daughter Grace and son Taylor, they split their time between a home in Arizona and a 2,349-square-foot apartment on West 99th Street and Broadway, which they picked up for $3.25 million in 2008. 

True story

In 2006, Hasselbeck and her husband were harassed by a woman who repeatedly called the couple and also alleged that the Hasselbecks were abusing their daughter. Barbara Walters eventually read a statement on-air in an attempt to stop the harassment.