(NEW YORK) -- One of the last remaining original cast members of the ABC talk show The View is calling it quits. After 16 years on the daytime show, Joy Behar says she is leaving.

With the end of her contract approaching, the outspoken liberal has notified ABC she won't be coming back to tell her daily stories on air alongside current panel members Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd. After several changes to the lineup of co-hosts since The View's 1997 premiere, Behar's departure will leave Walters as the show's last original member.

"Joy Behar has been instrumental in the success of The View from the very beginning," ABC said Thursday in a statement. "We wish her all the best in this next chapter, and are thrilled that we have her for the remainder of the season."

Behar will remain on the The View through August, when the show closes its 16th season.

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