Barbara Walters

The first woman to front a US evening news programme, she interviewed every US president from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump.

News anchor Don Lemon tweeted: "She was obviously amazing on television but I selfishly loved spending time with her in person. She left the world the better for it. The world of journalism has lost a pillar of professionalism, courage, and integrity. She outworked, out-thought, and out-hustled her competitors. "She lived her life with no regrets. Barbara Walters was a trailblazer and a true pro.

The following are key facts about the life and career of pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, the first woman to anchor an American network ...

She said McGee tried to restrict her contributions on "Today" and that Reasoner was openly resentful of her presence at the anchor desk. She was teamed with on "ABC Evening News" with Harry Reasoner until 1978 and was paid an unprecedented $1 million a year for her work on the news show and special programs. She appeared on the show regularly and often had to mediate controversies stirred by co-hosts Star Jones and Rosie O'Donnell. * Walters started at NBC's "Today" show as a writer in 1961 and in 1976 became the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news broadcast on U.S. Hepburn's answer to the question was an oak. * Walters was born in Boston on Sept.

Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, parent of ABC, said in a statement Walters died Friday evening at her New York City residence.

In 1997, Walters debuted a new show that was closer to her "TODAY" roots: a midmorning talk show with an all-women panel called "The View." "I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men, too — who will be taking my place." Her exclusive interview with Monica Lewinsky in 1999 earned the highest ratings in history for a prime-time interview. With ratings of her ABC news program a disappointment, Walters' career was saved by the prime-time interview specials she started for ABC. But it was her interviews that remained Walters' passion, compiling her mix of tough and amusing questions on her trademark 3x5 index cards and fussing with the order even after the cameras started rolling. Walters later admitted she didn't find the "Baba Wawa" skits funny. Walters was lured to ABC to become the first female co-anchor of a prime-time news broadcast with an unprecedented $1 million annual salary. It didn't take long, however, for viewers to sense the tension between Walters and co-anchor Harry Reasoner, who couldn't be bothered to hide his disdain for this former "TODAY Girl" being billed as his equal. When she broke into the business in 1961 as a writer on NBC's "TODAY" show, the idea of a woman sitting down and interviewing a sitting president on prime-time network television (which she did just over a decade later) seemed more fantasy than reality in an industry dominated by men like Edward R. "She was smart and prepared, but at the same time she came across as more compassionate (than her male peers). ABC, the network where she last worked, aired a special report Friday night announcing Walters' death and reflecting on her career. She earned that reputation with a penchant for meticulous preparation, whether she was interviewing despots or divas, models or murderers.

She spent more than a half-century on network television, as a host of NBC's Today and ABC's 20/20 programmes, as well as frequent specials.

Her father, Lou Walters, was a vaudevillian impresario who founded the Latin Quarter, one of the nation’s top nightclubs. “In this time of instant Internet news, cell phones that take videos, and a profusion of blogs where everyone is a reporter, there will be little chance for any single person to have the kind of career that I’ve had,” Walters wrote in her 2008 memoir. “She was a one-of-a-kind reporter who landed many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state to the biggest celebrities and sports icons.” In her memoir, the thrice-divorced Walters revealed an affair, starting in 1973, with then-US Senator Edward Brooke, a Republican from Massachusetts. Having worked in TV production for several years, Walters moved in front of the camera for good in 1964 on NBC’s Today show. In 1953, she received a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. “If I did anything to help that happen, that’s my legacy.” She stayed at the programme for about 25 years. She interviewed every US president in her time, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, as well as the Shah of Iran, Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi and Cuba’s Fidel Castro, twice. A cultural touchstone whom “Saturday Night Live” lampooned as “Baba Wawa” for her lisp, she was America’s most enduring celebrity interviewer. A list of her subjects reads like an All-Star roster of the past 50 years. Bob Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney Co, ABC’s parent company, said Walters died Friday evening at her home in New York.

WASHINGTON: Pioneering television journalist Barbara Walters, who upended a male-dominated industry as the first woman to anchor an evening news show in the ...

Two years later, she would join ABC. Advertisement

Barbara Walters, one of the most visible women on U.S. television as the first female anchor on an American network evening news broadcast and one of TV's ...

In 1997, Walters launched "The View" on ABC, a popular roundtable discussion show for women that was sometimes riven by disputes with her co-hosts Star Jones and Rosie O'Donnell. Being interviewed by Walters on "20/20" or on her numerous specials became a distinction - and guaranteed exposure - for her subjects. After 13 years on "Today," Walters was given an unprecedented $1 million annual salary to move to rival network ABC in 1976 and make history as the first woman co-anchor on a U.S. She also had high-profile boyfriends such as Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve, and John Warner, who would later become a senator from Virginia. Walters became so prominent that her star quality sometimes overshadowed the people she was questioning. "These two men were really quite brutal to me and it was not pleasant," Walters told the San Francisco Examiner. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, she worked in public relations before joining NBC's "Today" show as a writer and segment producer in 1961. Her unwilling partner, Harry Reasoner, made his disdain for Walters obvious even when they were on the air. Walters said the spoof bothered her, until her daughter told her to lighten up. Celebrity interviews also were an important part of Walters' repertoire, and for 29 years she hosted a pre-Oscars interview program featuring Academy Award nominees. In a broadcast career spanning five decades, Walters interviewed an array of world leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro, Britain's Margaret Thatcher, Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and every U.S. WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Barbara Walters, one of the most visible women on U.S.

Walters was a broadcasting trailblazer who helped develop many modern TV templates. Here are some of the most memorable moments from her influential career.

[behind-the-scenes drama](https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/elisabeth-hasselbeck-quit-the-view-listen-fight-barbara-walters-audio-1203180312/) — [arguments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc4SvJdfDZc), a revolving door of panelists, hosts [storming off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVrR2j7uwjs) the air — has occasionally overshadowed the show itself. These high-profile [conversations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuDnX63GSA8) spawned multiple spinoffs, including nearly 30 years of highly rated [Oscar-night programs](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/arts/television/04walters.html), starting in 1981; the annual [“10 Most Fascinating People” specials](https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/barbara-walters-fascinating-people-began-21272019), starting in 1993; and a series of [intermittent one-off interviews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsL-QFAzRkw&app=desktop), such as with [Patrick Swayze](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsL-QFAzRkw&app=desktop). [former President Richard Nixon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZk2xuJN8kQ). In the late 1970s, she went to Cuba for an [extensive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC6xcQx4l7Y) [interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC6xcQx4l7Y) with Fidel Castro (drawing the attention of the C.I.A. Trump](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji3qna9ZVgs) (when Trump was still a candidate). (Walters [often](https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/barbara-walters-retirement-2014-tv-trailblazer-reveals-top-19175060) [cited](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXh4_BUZwHI) this as the favorite of her interviews.) [move](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQHQ7nfwK4I) to [ABC](https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/barbara-walters-debuts-abc-news-1976-69034551) as the first female co-anchor of a nightly network newscast wasn’t universally applauded. Her “ABC Evening News” co-host, [Harry Reasoner](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/07/obituaries/harry-reasoner-68-newscaster-known-for-his-wry-wit-is-dead.html), [didn’t think so](https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/13/archives/the-showdown-at-abc-news-behind-the-personality-conflict-between.html) and [rarely](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5Fb0E0ZAk) [hid](https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/barbara-walters-risks-failures-23760251) his contempt on-camera. She flourished away from the studio as a [roving reporter and interviewer](https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/20/archives/abc-news-shifting-center-to-capital-she-stays-in-new-york-deskborne.html). [Aline Saarinen](https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/15/archives/aline-saarinen-art-critic-dies-at-58.html). [Henry Kissinger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVNaQrJv4sU), [Prince Philip](https://twitter.com/todayshow/status/860210439136960515?lang=en), [Phyllis Schlafly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjrP0NFHKAE)) and showbiz celebrities ( [Judy Garland](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHJujYMvY30), Barbra Streisand, [Bette Midler](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9jwFEu9mNQ)). [co-host](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeWjVLwV3Zk) until 1974, when she became the first woman to earn that title.

Disney Legend Barbara Walters, the pioneering television journalist who spent 38 years at ABC News, passed away this evening at her home in New York.

She also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She became a co-host of the program without the official title in 1963, but in 1974, NBC formally designated her as the program’s first female co-host. After 25 years as host and chief correspondent of ABC News’ 20/20, Walters left the show in 2004, but she remained an active member of the news division and network for years thereafter. She made journalism history with the first joint interview with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin in 1977. She not only interviewed the world’s most fascinating figures, but she became a part of their world. I had the pleasure of calling Barbara a colleague for more than three decades, but more importantly, I was able to call her a dear friend.

In a broadcast career spanning five decades, Walters interviewed an array of world leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro and Britain's Margaret Thatcher.

The circumstances of her death were not given. WASHINGTON – Barbara Walters, one of the most visible women on U.S. In a broadcast career spanning five decades, Walters interviewed an array of world leaders, including Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and every U.S.

The ABC News icon and co-founder of "The View" was the first female anchor to make $1 million a year.

Pioneering television journalist Barbara Walters, who upended a male-dominated industry as the first woman to anchor an evening news show in the United ...

Two years later, she would join ABC. Advertisement

Walters became the first woman to anchor a U.S. evening news program, in 1976. She later co-hosted “20/20” on ABC, and in 1997 launched “The View.

"She was a one-of-a-kind reporter who landed many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state and leaders of regimes to the biggest celebrities and sports icons." [Walt Disney](/quotes/DIS/), [issued a statement calling Walters "a dear friend." Walters became the first woman to anchor a U.S.

Journalist who made US television history as the first female co-anchor of a network evening news show.

She was creator of The View, which began in 1997, a popular chat-show covering politics and other issues. “From that time on I was more or less accepted as a member of the old boys’ club,” she wrote in her autobiography, Audition, published in 2009. The third, to a television executive, Merv Adelson, in 1981, ended in divorce in 1984. Later that year, she did the first joint interview with the leaders of Egypt and Israel, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, a hugely symbolic moment in the Middle East. The casual sexism of the time was reflected in the headline: “Nylons in the Newsroom”. She got her start in television as a publicity assistant at an NBC affiliate in New York city, and made her first appearance on screen when she was producing a children’s programme, Ask the Camera. But viewers liked her and television executives, in turn, liked the ratings. Back in the US she became a writer in 1961 for NBC Today and three years later became a regular on screen as a reporter. Through a combination of talent and drive, Walters went on to make television history in 1974 as the first female co-host of NBC’s Today morning news show. It was one of the most watched news interviews in US television history. With that background, she chose theatre as her major at the Sarah Lawrence college in New York state. Her success opened the way for the generations of female television journalists who followed.

First female network news anchor in US achieved a celebrity status on par with the rulers, royalty and entertainers she interviewed.

“I always thought I’d be a writer for television. The circumstances of her death were not given. “I never expected this!” Walters said in 2004, taking measure of her success.

Reaction poured in from the worlds of journalism, politics, sports and entertainment following the death of TV news pioneer and “The View” creator Barbara ...

“So often we toss around the words icon, legend, trailblazer - but Barbara Walters was all of these. “Barbara Walters will always be known as a trail blazer. A true trailblazer, she was the 1st woman anchor on the evening news. [Katie Couric](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm0WJF1r84t/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link), journalist, former “Today” co-host and network news anchor. we met in the spring of 1998, in the midst of the starr investigation; i was 24. She cared about the truth and she made us care too. “The world of journalism has lost a pillar of professionalism, courage, and integrity. She left the world the better for it. She will be missed by all of us at The Walt Disney Company, and we send our deepest condolences to her daughter, Jacqueline.” — “Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself. An intrepid interviewer, anchor and program host, she led the way as the first woman to become a TV news superstar. She was just as comfortable interviewing world leaders as she was Oscar winners and she had to fight like hell for every interview.

The first woman to co-anchor the evening news, she endured the scorn of her male counterparts.

[passed documents](https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/17/world/barbara-walters-gave-reagan-papers-on-iran.html) from Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms merchant she had interviewed for “20/20,” to the White House — a move [met with outrage](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-18-ca-7703-story.html) by much of the journalism community. Walters [interviewed](https://www.playbill.com/article/webber-names-his-favorite-on-20-20-com-69067) the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber for “20/20,” but did not reveal that she had invested $100,000 in the production of his musical “Sunset Boulevard” on Broadway. [ABC News admonished her](https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/20/nyregion/abc-admits-walters-had-sunset-stake.html) about the oversight. [once said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTdot_qjcts), describing how she had to rely on her knowledge of the New York Yankees to convince the stagehands to talk to her. [in a program](https://www.emmys.com/news/hall-fame/barbara-walters-hall-fame-tribute) for her 1989 induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Or, she might dig for gossip, wanting to know about Barbra Streisand’s face (“Why didn’t you have your nose fixed?”) and Ricky Martin’s sexuality (“You could say, as many artists have, yes I am gay, or you could say, no I’m not.”). She went on a few dates and remained longtime friends with the Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes. Her counterpart, Harry Reasoner, “was really awful to me on and off the air,” she told Vogue, though he later said he never disliked her personally. Her first autobiography, published in 1970, was called “How to Talk with Practically Anybody about Practically Anything.” She wrote in her 2008 memoir, “Audition,” that it was her legs, not her skills, that persuaded the head of a small Manhattan advertising agency to give her a job soon after she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1951. At the same time, she was working, unofficially, as the “Today” show's first female co-host. In 1961, she joined NBC’s “Today” show as a writer, researcher and occasional correspondent.

Walters, a pioneer as TV news' first woman superstar, has died. She was 93.

A perennial favorite was her review of the year’s “10 Most Fascinating People.” But she faced a setback in 1971 with the arrival of a new host, Frank McGee, who insisted she wait for him to ask three questions before she could open her mouth during interviews with “powerful persons.” As she appeared more frequently, she was spared the title of “‘Today’ Girl” that had been attached to her predecessors. By 1976, she had been granted the title of “Today” co-host and was earning $700,000 a year. “I hope that I will be remembered as a good and courageous journalist. Walters’ self-disclosure reached another benchmark in May 2010 when she made an announcement on “The View” that, days later, she would undergo heart surgery. But salvation arrived in the form of a new boss: ABC News president Roone Arledge moved her out of the co-anchor slot and into special projects. Her 1963 marriage to theater owner Lee Guber, with whom she adopted a daughter, ended in divorce after 13 years. In May 2014, she taped her final episode of “The View” amid much ceremony to end a five-decade career in television (although she continued to make occasional TV appearances ). Late in her career, she gave infotainment a new twist with “The View,” a live ABC weekday kaffee klatsch with an all-female panel for whom any topic was on the table and who welcomed guests ranging from world leaders to teen idols. Walters graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1943 and eventually landed a “temporary,” behind-the-scenes assignment at “Today” in 1961. “She lived her life with no regrets.

Barbara Walters, known for her groundbreaking interviews and a driving ambition that led her to become the first woman to anchor a network prime-time news ...

In the 2014 television special that commemorated her retirement from TV journalism, Walters showed off an autographed photo from Cuban despot Fidel Castro that hung on her wall: “For the longest and most difficult interview I’ve ever done in my life.” Her exclusive interview with Monica Lewinsky in 1999 earned the highest ratings in history for a prime-time interview. With ratings of her ABC news program a disappointment, Walters’ career was saved by the prime-time interview specials she started for ABC. ](https://twitter.com/mariashriver/status/1609026946696114177)"You paved the way for all of us. Walters was lured to ABC to become the first female co-anchor of a prime-time news broadcast with an unprecedented $1 million annual salary. It didn’t take long, however, for viewers to sense the tension between Walters and co-anchor Harry Reasoner, who couldn’t be bothered to hide his disdain for this former “TODAY Girl” being billed as his equal. When she broke into the business in 1961 as a writer on NBC’s “TODAY” show, the idea of a woman sitting down and interviewing a sitting president on prime-time network television (which she did just over a decade later) seemed more fantasy than reality in an industry dominated by men like Edward R. “She was smart and prepared, but at the same time she came across as more compassionate (than her male peers). “I learned that celebrities were human beings,” Walters said in 2014. ABC, the network where she last worked, aired a special report Friday night announcing Walters' death and reflecting on her career. She earned that reputation with a penchant for meticulous preparation, whether she was interviewing despots or divas, models or murderers. "She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women.”

A look back at the pioneering journalist's rise to the top echelon of television and media, as documented in the pages of Variety.

The blurb notes that the woman “who usually does the interviewing,” would be featured the following week on the popular syndicated daytime series “The Mike Douglas Show.” She was set to be interviewed and sing on the show — just one of many passions Walters pursued throughout her extraordinary life. As noted in the June 27, 1962, edition of weekly, she traveled with first lady Jacqueline Kennedy for a feature for Ladies Home Journal – all while working still long hours for “Today.” As someone who kept her finger on the pulse, Variety noted in the Dec. 9, 1964, edition that Walters of course showed off her football chops in her probing interview with the wife of then-embattled New York Giants quarterback Y.A. But early on she did work in the realm of PR and advertising before she planted roots on the editorial side at NBC News’ “Today.” She merited a mention high in the “From the Production Centres” column (I have no idea why we used that spelling for Centers) that ran on page 56 of the July 30, 1952, weekly edition. It’s a mention that she is joining the “flackery” (aka PR) department of WNBC-TV and WNBT radio. She shifted into programming for WNBC-TV by early 1953 as was noted in the Jan. And it offers a unique and insightful prism on the evolution of television news, as an information medium and as a cultural force. Variety noted when she went out on her now-famous assignment for “Today” of becoming a trainee Playboy Bunny – a mention that no doubt helped cement that part of her legend in industry circles. 30 at age 93](https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/barbara-walters-dead-journalist-celebrity-interviewer-abc-news-1235476703/), as documented in the pages of [Variety](https://variety.com/t/variety/) shows the clear trajectory of a well-connected, industrious young woman who was destined to reach the summit of New York media and literati circles. Barbara Walters stood out for the quality of her work even before she was on camera.

Legendary journalist Barbara Walters has died at age 93. Top industry leaders and influential colleagues are celebrating her contributions to the ...

Among major news outlets in the survey, The Washington Post came closest to gender equity with women representing 52% of staff members and 50% of leaders. The representation of women declined in nearly one-fifth of news organizations surveyed. Walters was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. Walters was a panel member on the show through her retirement in 2014. In hundreds of statements and media interviews, top industry leaders and influential colleagues swiftly reacted to the news of her passing with fond reflections on how she impacted them, their industry, and the world through expert reporting and interviewing. In 1976, she transitioned to ABC, where she became the first woman to anchor an evening news program.

Over the course of a half-century interviewing American presidents, Barbara Walters interviewed the most powerful men in the world about their regrets, ...

She cringed watching herself gravely asking Carter to be “good to us” at the end of an interview. She “couldn’t summon the courage” to ask Ford about falling down the steps from Air Force One. “I used to be criticized for asking those kinds of questions: doesn’t matter, what do we care what he or she thinks? Bush – whom she wrote was the president she knew best “on a personal level” – whether he regretted his campaign phrase “Read my lips: no new taxes” after he was forced to, in fact, raise taxes. What do they believe in?” she said during an episode of “Oprah’s Master Class” in 2014. Was it worth it?” she asked. “But was it worth it if there were no weapons of mass destruction? You wanted him to get out,” she asked Michelle Obama in 2010. “Is there ever a moment when you say to yourself, one term is enough?” “Are you worried about this image, Mr. “You wanted him to give up politics. “Are you mean?

Because of Barbara Walters, women have much more power, money and influence – and a stronger voice, more career opportunities and more options in their ...

It was not just because she was on camera, but also because it was a form of self-expression, and reflected her confidence. She even created and launched a show just to do that: “The View.” Walters intentionally designed “The View” in 1997 as a panel of only women across the generations and the political spectrum. She did this when she became a mother, and altered her schedule to be there for her daughter, too. But what Walters really did was recognize that we are whole people with a range of quirks, choices, and dimensions, and that those quirks make us human to an audience – and make great television. Give a voice to the various dimensions of who you are – and who others are: Audiences embraced the personal questions Walters often asked her interviewees, even awkward ones – like asking Monica Lewinsky about showing her thong to the President of the United States, Bill Clinton. The stories of their clashes on air and off are news business legend, but what it showed was that she seized the opportunity and made it work for her, somehow. Really listen: She was known for her questions, but if you watch how Walters conducted her interviews, she is very present with her interviewees and listens closely to what they say and responds to it. Instead, she boldly, tenaciously and courageously embraced and pursued her intellect, her ambition and her formidable skills and sought to be among the top in her field. That strategic smile and light laugh came in handy when, for example, Reasoner insulted her in their first appearance together as co-anchors on the evening news in 1976 (he clearly did not want her there). It helped her a lot when she confronted Donald Trump in August, 1990 on his claims of success, for example. Every journalist interviews people, but Walters made it an art and pulled her audience in to their conversation in a way like no one else. Embrace who you are: Barbara Walters could have easily dumbed it down to get along better with the culture of the white-male dominated era of her early career, but she chose not to and stood firm.

Revered journalist and news host Barbara Walters interviewed everyone from Princess Grace of Monaco to several US presidents to Kim Kardashian.

After moving to rival network ABC in 1976, she became the first female evening news host in the US — a trailblazing title that also came with an eye-watering salary of $US1 million. For the team, any topic was on the table and they welcomed guests ranging from world leaders to teen idols. But she faced a setback in 1971 with the arrival of a new co-host, Frank McGee.

ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST: And now we'll remember Barbara Walters, one of journalism's most influential figures, who died yesterday at 93.

And I do it for the viewers. I don't do it for the newspapers to get a headline. And then when I had my struggles, both on "The Today Show" and when I came to ABC with men who really didn't want me as a partner, I knew what it was to fail. WALTERS: If I were out of the studio, Michel - right. And he sure didn't want me, and he made it very difficult. WALTERS: You are Mama, and you work.