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"The engine roared, and the ground soon looked farther and farther away," the former broadcaster writes in her new book

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Says She Was Told to Jump Out of a Plane While Auditioning for Survivor

Before Elisabeth Hasselbeck joined The View, she was on the second season of Survivor — and the audition process was just as difficult as the challenges she would face on the show.

In her new book, Point of View: A Fresh Look at Work Faith, and Freedom (on shelves now), Hasselbeck, 41, explains that after a week of “unannounced interviews and unplanned meals” in Los Angeles, she was told she’d been selected for the show.

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“You made it! Now pack your things,” Hasselbeck recalls executive producer Mark Burnett and a couple of others telling her. “You’re booked on the first plane to Texas, where you’ll attend jump school. Once you get through the certification there, you’ll be on Survivor!”

After learning that she was expected to jump out of a plane 10 times, Hasselbeck was given an “envelope containing cash, an airline ticket, and a piece of paper that included some — but not much — information about my activities over the next several days,” she writes. Hasselbeck was tasked with getting to the school all by herself.

In May 2017, host Jeff Probst reflected on the foundation of the show, which first aired in 2000.

Image zoom WaterBrook

“You take people from different walks of life… and you shove them in this intense conflict and force them to live together and build a world where they don’t have the same goal,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s why it’s not a traditional society. We actually want to get rid of each other, and how do we do it in a way that we can still live and survive and win?”

The soon-to-be television personality was immediately uneasy when she arrived at her remote “motel with a blinking sign and trucks pulled up to it.” Once inside, she put a chair in front of the door to barricade herself in, she writes.

Hasselbeck, who was told to go by the alias “Amanda,” was already nervous enough when she learned that the school was far away — and she was low on cash. She walked “for what felt like hours down a dusty highway” until she reached a car dealership where she hoped to rent a car, but there were none available.

With no other options, Hasselbeck then negotiated with a man she presumed was a car salesman and rented his car for two days for $100.

“For some reason, he said yes,” she writes. “After unlocking a child’s car seat from the back and removing it, he handed me the key.”

The scenario got even stranger when she finally arrived at the jumping school, where a man greeted her, according to the book. The Survivor staffer who arranged for her jumping lessons told the school that he was her fiancé. The lessons were to get her ready for their “honeymoon,” according to Point of View.

After going through training, Hasselbeck learned she was expected to jump five times that first day … by herself.

Image zoom Elisabeth Hasselbeck Monty Brinton/CBS Photo Archive/Getty

“The engine roared, and the ground soon looked farther and farther away. The jump school slipped out of sight, and the door of the plane seemed like the mouth of a lion to me,” she writes. “The turmoil I felt inside and the adrenaline running through me left my fingers numb. Inside I was screaming, yet the instructor and pilot had a demeanor of quiet calm.”

Just as she was about to jump, Hasselbeck was called back by the instructors. They told her that her “fiancé” no longer wanted her to jump and had put a hold on the paperwork, per the book.

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When Hasselbeck was back on the ground and spoke to a producer, she was told to leave the school and fly back to Boston the next day. She never ended up jumping out of the plane.

“Hitting the pillow hard in anticipation of an early flight,” Hasselbeck writes,” I had to wonder if the whole experience had been a test of my will.”