Remembering TV news trailblazer Barbara Walters

Veteran broadcaster Barbara Walters is being remembered for her many interviews with major newsmakers, and for being the first woman to co-anchor and then anchor a weeknight television news broadcast. Correspondent Jamie Yuccas looks back on the long and storied career of Walters, who died Friday at the age of 93.

• Barbara Walters, Landmark Journalist and History-Making Interviewer, Dead at 93. Walters changed the course of morning, evening, and daytime television during her six decade career. – Indie Wire article

Barbara Jill Walters (September 25, 1929 – December 30, 2022) was an American broadcast journalist and television personality.^[1][2] Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, Walters appeared as a host of numerous television programs, including Today, the ABC Evening News, 20/20, and The View. Walters was a working journalist from 1951 until her retirement in 2015.^[3][4][5]

Walters began her career on The Today Show in the early 1960s as a writer and segment producer of women’s interest stories. Her popularity with viewers resulted in Walters receiving more airtime, and in 1974, she became co-host of the program, the first woman to hold such a title on an American news program.^[6][7][8] In 1976, she continued to be a pioneer for women in broadcasting by becoming the first female co-anchor of a network evening news program, alongside Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News. Walters worked as a producer and co-host on the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 from 1979 to 2004. She also became known for an annual special aired on ABC, Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People. Walters interviewed every sitting U.S. president and first lady from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama.^[9] She also interviewed both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, though not as presidents.

Walters created, produced, and co-hosted the ABC daytime talk show The View, on which she appeared from 1997 until her retirement in 2014.^[10] Later she continued to host a number of special reports for 20/20 as well as documentary series for Investigation Discovery. Her final on-air appearance for ABC News was in 2015.^{[11][12][13][14][15]}

Walters was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989, and in 2007 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2000.   – More at Wikipendia