Now that Rosie O'Donnell has announced that she's done with "The View," the speculation has begun over who will replace the controversial television talker on the show.

According to Media Life Magazine, several names have already popped up in the broadcast circles, including former television hosts Kathie Lee Gifford, Connie Chung and Joan Rivers, actor Whoopi Goldberg and newswomen Soledad O'Brien and Rita Crosby.

O'Donnell said Wednesday that she's leaving "The View" after one year of sharing co-hosting duties with Barbara Walters, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Joy Behar. O'Donnell replaced former "View" co-host Meredith Viera after she departed for NBC's "Today."

"My needs for the future just didn't dovetail with what ABC was able to offer me," O'Donnell said in a statement Wednesday. "This has been an amazing experience -- and one I wouldn't have traded for the world."

O'Donnell wanted one more year on the show and the network wanted three. ABC said her last day would be in the middle of June.

Bill Carroll, an expert in the syndication market for Katz Television, said that he's inclined to believe the explanation that it was a contract dispute and not the controversy that seems to surround her.

Carroll said that if ABC was fearful of what she would say, O'Donnell wouldn't be kept on the air until June.

O'Donnell has helped increase the chat show's audience by about a half-million a day. But her outspokenness has caused controversy, including a nasty name-calling feud with Donald Trump that placed "The View" creator Barbara Walters in the middle.

Trump said on Fox News Channel Wednesday that O'Donnell was fired over remarks she made at Women in Communications luncheon Monday, but O'Donnell and Walters' publicist denied the claim.

Late-Night Comedians React

O'Donnell announcement about leaving "The View" gave the late-night comedians plenty of material Wednesday night.

Jay Leno led his monologue with a bunch of O'Donnell jokes. He said that O'Donnell leaving "The View" is such big news, they woke Walters up in the middle of the program to tell her.

Leno also said that "The View" is looking for someone chic and who can relate to the other women on the show to replace O'Donnell -- and the front-runner is "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest.

Meanwhile, David Letterman said that after O'Donnell announced she was leaving "The View," she shaved her head and checked into rehab.

Letterman also did his "Top 10" list on the reasons O'Donnell is leaving "The View." The No. 1 reason was that O'Donnell "tested positive for steroids."