Romney not taking in 'The View'

After criticizing chat program "The View" on a secretly recorded video, and subsequently agreeing to come on the show, Mitt Romney has cancelled his upcoming appearance citing scheduling conflicts.

Barbara Walters, the show's creator and co-host, announced the news Monday.

"Gov. Romney was supposed to be on with us this Thursday with Ann Romney," she said. "We were looking forward to it. Over the weekend, his people said that he had scheduling problems and would not be coming on with us. Nor at this point did he feel that he could reschedule. We are happy to have Mrs. Romney on with us. We are sorry that we won't have Gov. Romney."

She left the invitation open, however, saying "he can change his mind and we hope he does. It would be our pleasure to have him on the program."

Amanda Henneberg, a Romney campaign spokeswoman, said the GOP nominee's appearance "was no longer going to work in the campaign schedule, but Mrs. Romney is very excited to join the ladies of The View."

At a surreptitiously recorded campaign fund-raiser in May, Romney called the ABC morning talk show "high risk," pointing to the political affiliations of the co-hosts. Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd have all expressed decidedly liberal standpoints, though Elisabeth Hasselbeck is an outspoken conservative.

"'The View' is high risk because of the five women on it. The other four are sharp tongued and not conservative, Whoopi Goldberg in particular," Romney told donors in Boca Raton, Fla., earlier in the summer, adding "Although the last time I was on the show, she said to me, 'You know what? I think I could vote for you.' And I said, 'I must have done something really wrong.'"

Soon after the release of the video Hasselbeck announced on the show that Romney had agreed to appear on "The View" couch in October. Romney's previous appearance on "The View" was in 2010.

Romney also said in the video he's also staying away from the comedy show "Saturday Night Live" "because you want to show that you are fun and you're a good person, but you also want to appear presidential."