The View Will 'Take a Little Time' to Find Meghan McCain's Replacement After Her Exit, EP Says

The View will be taking its time in finding a replacement for Meghan McCain, who exited the daytime talk show this summer.

Season 25 of The View kicked off on Tuesday with co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines. CNN reporter Ana Navarro-Cárdenas will also make guest co-hosting appearances throughout the season, per the show's Twitter page, but executive producer Brian Teta tells PEOPLE they aren't in any rush to fill McCain's seat.

"This is such an important seat for us to fill at the table so we're going to 'take a little time' to make sure we find the right fit," he said in a statement. "It goes back to Barbara Walters' original direction – different women with different views. It's essential that the audience can relate to different points of View at our table."

Walters, 91, put together the initial panel of women in 1997 and served on it herself until her retirement in 2014.

Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Joy Behar on Tuesday's season 25 premiere

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McCain, 36, announced her exit from the show earlier this summer after four seasons as a panelist, citing her life in Washington, D.C. with husband Ben Domenech as a reason for her departure. The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Liberty, last September.

"This was not an easy decision," she said at the top of the July 1 episode. "It took a lot of thought and counsel and prayer, and talking to my family and my close friends, and, you know, look — COVID has changed the world for all of us and it changed the way, at least for me, the way I am looking at life, the way I'm living my life, the way I want my life to look like."

McCain's final episode aired Aug. 6. "This has been a really wild ride the past four years of my life," she said in her farewell to viewers.

She continued, "It's been, honestly, the best of times in all ways, on and off the show. And it's been a really incredible, liberating experience and I will always cherish the time I spent with all of you."

Lou Rocco/Walt Disney Television via Getty Meghan McCain on The View

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In July, a source told PEOPLE that McCain's departure "was a recent decision."

"ABC did want her to stay, but it was her decision for quite a few reasons that she said in her statement — that she made the decision along with her family that it was her time to step back," the insider said.

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"They did want her to come back to the New York studio," the source added of ABC. "And in D.C., her family is there, her mom's a new ambassador now and she'll be in D.C., Ben's situated there for work and his family — her in-laws — are there. The geography was a big piece of it."

ABC said in a statement at the time, "For the past four years, Meghan McCain has brought her fierce determination and vast political knowledge and experience to The View. She recently came to us with her decision to depart the show at the end of this season, a difficult choice that she made for her and her family that we respect and understand."

The View airs weekdays (11 a.m. ET) on ABC.