Who Will Take Sara Gilbert’s Seat At ‘The Talk’ Table? Fans React To Her Exit, Suggest Season 10 Replacements

The longtime CBS co-host will step down from the show at the end of this season, and several contenders could be in line to fill her seat.

The Talk, Tuesday, April 9, 2019 on the CBS Television Network. From left, Sheryl Underwood, Carrie Ann Inaba, Sharon Osbourne, Eve and Sara Gilbert, shown.
Bonnie Osborne / CBS
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The longtime CBS co-host will step down from the show at the end of this season, and several contenders could be in line to fill her seat.

Sara Gilbert is leaving The Talk, and fans are now talking about her possible replacement on the CBS chatfest. The Talk star, who created the Emmy-winning daytime talk show and co-hosted it for nine years, announced that she will leave her post on the panel at the end of this season, as previously shared by The Inquisitr.

In a tearful announcement, Gilbert, who also stars on and executive produces ABC’s The Conners, said she felt “out of balance” working on both shows and admitted that she was “not spending as much time with my three kids as I would like.”

Gilbert, who will soon produce and star on The Conners’ upcoming second season, added that she has other projects in development and has decided that she can no longer “do it all” and will now focus on her family and acting and producing opportunities.

Sara Gilbert’s sister, former Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert, took to Twitter to tease big things in the future for her little sister.

“I love my baby sister @THEsaragilbert so much,” Melissa Gilbert wrote. “I am so incredibly proud of her. She created an incredible show in @TheTalkCBS. I know that this, for her, may feel like an ending but I also know, with all my heart, that this is really the beginning. Just watch!”

In her departure announcement, Sara Gilbert promised that she will be back to guest co-host The Talk in the future. But fans have some definite opinions on who should fill her seat permanently at the five-woman table.

Many fans took to social media to nominate recurring guest co-host Carnie Wilson to take Gilbert’s job. Wilson has continued to appear on The Talk through every casting change, including the departures of Aisha Tyler and Julie Chen, which resulted in Eve and Carrie Ann Inaba filling those seats.

Other Talk fans put in nominations for longtime friend of the show Jodie Sweetin, whose sitcom Fuller House will soon wrap its final season on Netflix. Other fans threw out names like Marie Osmond and Valerie Bertinelli, two other popular recurring guest hosts on The Talk.

There were also several suggestions to replace Sara Gilbert with another member of the LGBTQ community. Blogger Perez Hilton even suggested that he should get the job, which would certainly put a new twist on the all-female Talk panel. You can see viewer reaction to Sara Gilbert’s departure from The Talk below.

While several names have been thrown into the mix, there is no confirmation that The Talk will even replace Sara Gilbert. When Julie Chen unexpectedly departed The Talk last fall amid misconduct allegations against her husband, former CBS chief Les Moonves, the show took its time in replacing her with Inaba and instead relied on a rotating roster of guest hosts.

Still, when the time does come to replace Gilbert, Carnie Wilson seems to be a frontrunner this time, at least as far as fans are concerned. In a comment posted to The Talk’s Instagram page, Wilson even offered a message of support for her longtime friend as she moves on to this new chapter of her life.

“Sara my friend I love you so very much,” Wilson wrote. “I honor and respect you I think you are a beacon of strength and truth and love and light /we have choices to make in our lives some of them are more difficult than others. You have followed your heart and this show would not exist without you.”

You can see Sara Gilbert’s announcement below.

The Talk airs weekdays on CBS.