Barbara Walters
What was Barbara Walters known for?
When did Barbara Walters become cohost of the Today show?
Who is Barbara Walter’s daughter?
What significant achievement did Barbara Walters accomplish in 1976?
What was the focus of Barbara Walters’ interviews?
What was the title of Barbara Walters’ autobiography?
Barbara Walters (born September 25, 1929, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died December 30, 2022, New York, New York) was a pioneering American journalist who was the first woman to cohost the Today show and the first woman to coanchor an evening network news program. Walters was also known for her highly effective technique in television interviews of world-renowned figures.
Education and early career
Walters was one of four children born to Dena (née Seletsky) Walters and Lou Walters. The family’s finances fluctuated, though in 1942 her father opened the Latin Club in New York City, which was hugely profitable. Barbara Walters graduated in 1951 from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, and, after brief employment in an advertising agency, she became an assistant to the publicity director for New York City’s NBC-affiliated television station. There she gained experience in writing and producing for television. Soon she was hired as a news and public affairs producer and writer by the CBS television network. In 1961 she became a writer for the popular NBC morning show Today and did occasional on-air feature stories.
Today and 20/20
Walters was hired in 1964 as the “Today Girl,” a job that had traditionally involved little more than being attractive, making small talk, and reading commercials. She soon expanded that narrow role, making a place for herself among the Today show’s panel of commentators and newsreaders. Her intelligence and camera presence, together with the solid journalistic work she did on her feature stories, made her one of the most popular personalities on the program, and in 1974 she was named cohost of Today with Hugh Downs, making her the first woman to host the show. The following year she won an Emmy for her work on the show.
In 1976 Walters made headlines by signing a five-year contract with ABC that made her the first woman to coanchor an evening network news program and, with a salary of $1 million per year, the highest-paid journalist at that time. In 1978 she left the program. The following year she joined the ABC newsmagazine show 20/20 as correspondent, becoming cohost with Downs in 1984; she remained with the program until 2004.
TV specials and The View
Walters was particularly known for her interviews with world notables. A tenacious pursuer of elusive figures in the news, she obtained exclusive interviews for her popular Barbara Walters Specials, which premiered in 1976. Her disarmingly direct questioning drew many subjects into frequently interesting and occasionally provocative moments of self-revelation. Walters described her effective interview style in How to Talk with Practically Anybody About Practically Anything (1970). In 1982 and 1983 she received Emmy Awards for best interviewer. She was named to the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1990. In 1993 Walters introduced an annual program that featured her interviews with the newsmakers she deemed the “most fascinating” of the year; the series culminated in 2015. In 1997 she began cohosting the daytime talk show The View, which she also helped create. The show featured a panel of other women who exchanged opinions and interviewed guests. Walters retired from The View, and from regular television news broadcasting, in 2014.
In her later years, Walters reportedly suffered from dementia. She died in 2022 at age 93.
- Born:
- September 25, 1929, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Awards And Honors:
- Emmy Award (1983)
- Emmy Award (1982)
- Notable Works:
- “Audition”
Personal life
Walters was married to business executive Robert Henry Katz from 1955 to 1957. In 1963 she wed Lee Guber, a theater producer. They adopted a daughter, Jacqueline Dena Guber, before divorcing in 1976. (The child was named for Walter’s elder sister, who was intellectually disabled.) Five years later she married Merv Adelson, a TV executive. They divorced in 1984 but remarried in 1986. The couple divorced again in 1992. In her autobiography, Audition (2008), so named because she felt she had to prove herself over and over again, Walters reflected on both her public life and her private life. She was especially candid about her struggles to balance her career with motherhood. The documentary Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything was released in 2025.
