If all the reports are true, then get ready for an end of an era as newswoman Barbara Walters prepares to retire soon. Multiple news outlets reported Friday that various sources had confirmed the longtime TV presence was ready to retire.
According to Entertainment Weekly, 83-year-old Walters will sign off in May 2014, accompanied by various specials on ABC "that will pay tribute to her long career in broadcast news."
She leaves behind an impressive body of work, one made all the more amazing because Walters accomplished so much in a time when there were few successful women in the news business. She started out near the bottom, as a writer and producer of "women's interest" stories for The Today Show on NBC, working hard and eventually working her way up to more air time. In 1974, she became a co-host and was the first woman to have that tile in network news. She kept blazing trails, two years later becoming the first woman to anchor an evening newscast. In 1984, she moderated a presidential debate.
She spent 25 years working at the news magazine 20/20, along with continuing he duties as a correspondent for ABC News and creating her popular interview specials. Every year, people still look forward to who will make Barbara Walter's list "The 10 Most Fascinating People." She also helped create the TV show "The View," a round table of women from different ages and backgrounds talking about the issues and conducting interviews.
She has been nominated for daytime Emmys 25 times, mostly for her work on "The View."
Not everyone will agree with everything Walters has done. "The View" has people who love it and people who hate it. People love to disagree over the people she chooses for her top 10 list ever year. But she showed other women that success could be had in the TV news business despite the fact that it was dominated by men, and for that alone she always will be remembered as a trailblazer.
