Barbara Walters

ABC News correspondent; “The Barbara Walters Specials”; Creator,co-host and executive producer of ABC Daytime’s “The View” Barbara Walters has arguably interviewed more statesmen and stars than any other journalist in history. She is so well known that her name and a brief biography is listed in the American Heritage Dictionary.

In September 2004, after 25 years as co-host and chief correspondent of ABC News’ “20/20,” Ms. Walters left the show to begin a new phase in her career at the network. She remains an active member of the news division and network, substantially increasing the number of primetime ABC News specials, in addition to her “Barbara Walters Specials.” Ms. Walters joined ABC News in 1976 as the first woman to co-host the network news.

Through the years she has interviewed such world figures as Russia’s Boris Yeltsin, China’s Premier Jiang Zemin, Great Britain’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Libya’s Moammar Qadaffi and Iraq’s President Sadaam Hussein. She was also the first American journalist to interview Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the first interview with President and Mrs. Bush following September 11. Most recently, in December, she conducted an exclusive interview with Syria’s embattled President, Bashir al Assad in Damascus.

At the other extreme, in 1999 Ms. Walters conducted the first interview with Monica Lewinsky, which became the highest-rated news program ever broadcast by a single network.

She has interviewed every American President and First Lady since Richard Nixon. She made journalism history by arranging the first joint interview with Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin in November, 1977. Another of her “firsts” was an hour-long prime-time conversation with Cuban President Fidel Castro — an interview which has been printed in half a dozen languages and shown all over the world.“The Barbara Walters Specials” are continuously the top-rated specials of the year and have included such legends as Sir Laurence Olivier, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn and have includ-ed such superstars as Simon Cowell, Betty White, Katy Perry, David and Victoria Beckham, Justin Timberlake and George Clooney. In March 2010, Ms. Walters’ hosted her final Oscar special after 29 successful years. Ms. Walters’ “The 10 Most Fascinating People” special broadcast, launched in 1993, offers a year-end review of the most prominent newsmakers of the year, as well as the selection of the “most fascinating” person.

Ms. Walters is also creator, co-owner, executive producer and co-host of “The View,” recipient of the 2003 Daytime Emmy® Award for “Outstanding Talk Show.” In August 2009, “The View” hosts received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. It was the first time in the 36 year history of NATAS that multiple talk show hosts received this honor. In May 2009, “The View” hosts were chosen as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time. In July, 2009 Forbes ranked “The View” #11 among “30 of the Most Influential Women in Media.”

Prior to joining ABC she appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” for 15 years. She began as a writer on the “Today Show,” and within a year became a reporter-at-large, developing, writing and editing her own reports and interviews. In 1963 she became a co-host of the program without the official title, but in 1974 NBC officially designated her as the program’s first female co-host."