ABC News announced Barbara Walters’ death late Friday. Walters was 93.
Walters entered the world of television to support her family after her father went broke. Despite humble beginnings, she rose to become the first woman to co-host one of three traditional broadcast networks’ morning and evening news shows.
Walters’ on-air debut came in 1956 when, as a writer for CBS’ “The Morning Show,” she and four other women modeled a one-piece bathing suit. Four years later, she became NBC’s “Today Girl,” and became the first female co-host of “Today” in 1974. Two years later, ABC executives paired her with evening anchor Harry Reasoner to co-host ABC’s “Evening News.” Walters and Reasoner didn’t enjoy a close relationship. Still, she went on to host numerous television programs, interview the famous and infamous and created the ABC Daytime talk show “The View,” which she co-hosted from 1997 until her final retirement in 2014.
USA TODAY has more:
“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets,” her representative Cindi Berger said in a statement to USA TODAY. “She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women.”
ABC News’ David Muir paid tribute to Walters on-air, remembering her as an “extraordinary human being, journalist, pioneer, legend.”
“We were all influenced by Barbara Walters,” he said. “She broke barriers behind the scenes and she broke news on-camera. She got people to say things they never would’ve said to another journalist.”
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Over the years, she interviewed Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, John Wayne, the Shah of Iran, Fidel Castro (an hourlong prime-time exclusive that was broadcast worldwide), Barbra Streisand and, perhaps most famously, presidential intern Monica Lewinsky (who drew a record news-broadcast audience of 48.5 million viewers).
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