The show, which paired the peppy “Hot in Cleveland” star with Aussie talk-show host Rove McManus, failed to wow the bosses.

Its demise marks one less contender to lay claim to Oprah Winfrey’s daytime crown when “Oprah” ends its 25-year run in September 2011.

And the list is getting shorter. “The View” isn’t moving from 11 a.m. “Ellen” will stay on NBC stations for the long term. “Dr. Oz” is a legitimate threat, but still has to prove it has the chops.

One promising newcomer could be another CBS talk show pilot, developed by former “Roseanne” star Sara Gilbert and co-hosted by “Early Show” anchor Julie Chen and other A-listers.

That show (no title yet) has been described as “The View” for the mommy set — since Gilbert, Chen and co-hosts Sharon Osbourne, Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete are married with kids.

Shot a few weeks ago in LA, the show would be “a topical roundtable show . . . all the women happen to be mothers, so it’ll go through that filter,” says one source.

It’s a candidate to replace veteran soap “As The World Turns,” which ends its 54-year run on CBS in September. And, if it hits the ground running, the possibilities are endless.

RACE TO REPLACE

That’s Oprah Winfrey nervously biting her nails. Maybe she’s contemplating who will claim her crown as daytime’s top-rated talk show once “Oprah” ends its quarter-century run on Sept. 9, 2011.

The race is on, but already some have faltered at the starting gate — while others await their chance to get on air to show they’ve got the “right stuff” to rocket into daytime stardom.

But it won’t be easy. “Oprah” will leave behind a huge void to fill, and even coming close to snaring her type of audience — both in viewers and demographics — will be a mighty challenge.

So, who’s up to the task? Only time will tell, but here’s our take on the left-behinds and the wannabes:

OFF THE LIST

“Ellen”: Has a deal to remain on NBC-owned stations through the 2014 season. OK numbers, but nowhere near an “Oprah”-type audience, even with host Ellen DeGeneres’ boost from judging “American Idol.”

“The View”: Bid to move the show into daytime syndication was snuffed out by ABC, which co-owns the show. It will remain in its 11 a.m. timeslot. Barbara Walters grits her teeth over lost millions in syndication revenue.

Paula Deen/Kate Gosselin/Rene Syler/Lee Woodruff project: TelePictures shot a pilot, but that was about it. Went nowhere.

“Say It Now”: Talk show co-hosted by fan fave Valerie Bertinelli and Australian media personality Rove McManus didn’t get past the pilot stage. Next!

STILL IN THE RUNNING

Julie Chen/Sara Gilbert project: Talk show dubbed “ ‘The View’ for Moms” is fronted by “Early Show” host Chen (right) and former “Roseanne” star Gilbert, who also developed the project. It has potential with strong co-hosts Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete and Leah Remini.

“Swift Justice with Nancy Grace”: Another CBS-produced show premieres this fall and will be tied to station commitments for several years — but Grace could be a breakout daytime star in a format that suits her aggressive style. Why not?

“Oprah” averaged 3.8 million viewers — good enough for eighth among all syndicated shows but almost 2 million viewers less than daytime’s reigning champ, “Judge Judy,” which has now beaten “Oprah” 14 out of the past 16 weeks.

“Oprah” was also down 15 percent from the previous week and was off 9 percent from the same week last year.

To be fair, it was the week leading into a holiday and “Oprah” has been in repeats since May — but so has nearly every other daytime show in the summer season. (“Judge Judy” was also in repeats that week.)

The week of June 28 also included preemptions for Wimbledon tennis on NBC stations. “Oprah,” which airs mostly on ABC stations, especially in the larger markets, was preempted in 14 markets.

“Oprah” is entering its 25th and final season.

“There has been a lot of hassle … in the media recently about moi because I had the audacity to say that I had some personal time with Mel that goes over years and years and said that I did not think of him as a racist,” Whoopi began on ‘The View’ today.

“If you had actually watched the show, you would have heard us say, and you would have heard me specifically say, ‘I don’t condone this. I don’t think this is right, I don’t think this is smart. But here’s the piece of information that I have. My experience tells me that this is not a racist,’” she continued.

“I know Mel, and I know he’s not a racist,” Whoopi said on ‘The View’ on Monday, seeming both earnest and cautious to weigh in. “I have had a long friendship with Mel. You can say he’s being a bonehead, but I can’t sit and say that he’s a racist having spent time with him in my house with my kids. I don’t like what he’s done, make no mistake.”

The tapes, of which RadarOnline.com has released two parts thus far, feature an enraged Gibson bellowing at the mother of his 8-month-old daughter, relentlessly employing C-words, F-bombs and, sadly and disturbingly, racial slurs including the N-word.

When Joy Behar asked if Goldberg considered Gibson anti-Semitic after his 2006 tirade against a Jewish police officer in LA , Goldberg began calling him “an ass” before stifling herself. Whoopi then pinpointed alcohol as the culprit. “Drunks say stupid stuff to people all the time — because they’re drunk, they’re out of control, they are not thinking, they are idiotic. I can’t say anything about people like that because I know what they’re like when they’re drunk. This rant? I don’t think he’s drunk on this rant.”

The singer started her set with the classic Gershwin ballad ‘Someone to Watch Over Me,’ wearing an all-white ensemble of pants, a bra and a blazer. With dancers backing her, she took off the jacket and launched into her hit ‘Bad Romance.’

Before continuing the performance, the hosts of “Today” talked to Gaga about the realities of fame and her new music.

Walters, who has been absent from the show since her heart surgery in May, will be appearing live via Skype on July 12.

Though she’s been seen around town since the surgery, Walters has stayed away from “The View,” instead making the occasional on-air phone call to her fellow co-hosts.

“I’ve had a tummy tuck–we all know that,” she said. The tummy tuck, performed for free by Hailey Glassman’s father, was televised on ‘Jon and Kate Plus 8′ in 2008.

Kate, when pressed, denied rumors that she has also gotten a boob job.

Until yesterday, Zach Anner, a witty wheelchair-bound Texan who explains in his video that he has cerebral palsy (“the sexiest of the palsies”) and pitches “a travel show for people who never thought they could travel,” held a commanding lead (see video below).

But in the afternoon, contestant Dr. Phyllis — who proposes a reality show on teachers because the drama is in the classroom, rather convincingly — took the top spot by amassing votes at a rate that spurred some techno-savvy readers into sleuth mode.

Geekosystem has a detailed breakdown of the various claims (complete with graphs), among them that for at least a few hours, the source code for Phyllis’ “Vote” button differed from that of all the other contestants and that as quickly as her vote-per-minute average rose it dropped later that day (from 1,923 votes a minute to 3). Contacted by EW, a spokesperson for OWN issued the following statement: “The online voting rules for the ‘Your OWN Show’ video submission competition were carefully crafted to be fair to everyone. Any allegations of impropriety will be investigated and the appropriate actions taken to keep the process unbiased.” (As of 5:15 p.m. ET Wednesday, Anner was back in the lead, by a margin of more than 400,000 votes; Dr. Phyllis could not be reached for comment.)

“I miss her. We all miss her,” O’Neal said. The pair had a nearly 30-year relationship, which began in the early 1980s. They split in 1998, but reunited in 2001 when O’Neal found out he had leukemia. He was at her side when she passed away.

And she gave every staffer an Apple iPad, a leather iPad case with the staffer’s initials, and a check for $10,000, regardless of how long the staffer had worked there.

A Hearst spokeswoman confirmed the visit and gifts. “These were personal gifts to the staff from Oprah to thank them for their hard work and dedication to the magazine,” the spokeswoman said.

In 2004 Ms. Winfrey gave each member of her show’s studio audience a Pontiac G6. General Motors, which provided the cars for the publicity, later discontinued the Pontiac brand.

On the show, Hundley claimed that when she reported Phillips began acting inappropriately to her, supervisors advised her to keep quiet as “women tend to look bad in these situations.” Continuing allegations that The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre called “damning” (he’s correct if there’s truth to them), she said:

“[Female supervisors] just told me a story of how they had been harassed, almost as if, ‘Okay, you’ve been officially initiated.’ We all have a story to tell, this is just the culture.”

Yes, bad if true (and there’s probably at least some level of truth to this – Mike Tirico, anyone?), but…Hundley isn’t exactly a proven reliable source. When her affair with Phillips ended, she handled it rather…poorly.

And her saying that type of conduct “had nothing to do with [her] daily work,” and therefore shouldn’t preclude her from getting another job, doesn’t fly – of course employers should be wary of her because of these details (in fairness, Hundley did admit she “made some really dumb decisions”).