Walters ticked off - ABC tells Star, Don't come back!

Barb Walters wasn't too happy about Star Jones running her mouth on The View yesterday.

Walters, who created and produces the show, says, "I love Star and I was trying to do everything I possibly could - up until this morning when I was betrayed - to protect her. I would have loved for Star to have left and not said 'I was fired, ' and not make it look like the program was somehow being cruel to her."

"Up until this morning..." Run Star, run! Walters admits ABC declined to renew Jones Reynolds' contract after research showed audiences were "turned off by the former lawyer's dramatic weight loss and her 2004 marriage to Al Reynolds, where she plugged companies on air in exchange for freebies for her wedding."

Walters adds, "We tried to talk them out of it and we tried to give Star time to redeem herself in the eyes of the audience, and the research just kept getting worse."

Update: ABC says "leave immediately"