“The View” ushered in its New Year’s premiere by paying homage to the only Barbara Walters, who passed away on Friday, December 30 at the age of 93.
“Tributes are pouring in from around the world to celebrate the life of Barbara Walters,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said at the ABC Speaker Summit Monday. Goldberg said Walters is “the reason we’re all sitting here,” adding, “Really, without her I don’t know where most of us would be.”
“She’s very much defied sexism and defied anti-aging, and got into the lion’s jaw there when she had to deal with people like Harry Reasoner,” Joy Behar, who co-hosted The View since her early days with Walters, said. “She wasn’t just a friend of ours, she was very unique and important to the industry.”
“For someone who gets paid to speak, what you do well is listen,” said Sarah Haines, praising Walters’ professional journalism career and her famous “20/20” interviews.
Walters shot The View in 1997 with the original panel Meredith Vieira, Starr Jones, Debbie Matinopoulos, and comedian Joey Behar. Behar remains the only original cast member still on the show, along with Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Sarah Haines, Anna Navarro and Alyssa Farrah Griffin.
The original participants on “The VIew”, Star Jones, Joy Behar, Meredith Vieira, Debbie Matenopoulos and Barbara Walters.
© ABC / Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection
An industry leader, Walters worked on the “Today” show for 12 years before joining ABC News in 1976, becoming the first female anchor of the evening news. She remained with the network — working for ABC News, joining “20/20” in 1980 and launching “The View” in 1997 — until her retirement in 2014. She won a total of 12 Emmy Awards.
“I don’t want to be on another show or climb another mountain,” she said upon leaving “The View” eight years ago. “I want instead to sit in a sunny field and admire the very talented women — and, well, some men, too — who will take my place.”
Over the course of her career, Walters has interviewed every American president and first lady from the Nixons to the Obamas. I sat with former President Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, before they entered the White House.
Walter last appeared as a co-host on The View in 2014, but she has remained an executive producer for the show.
“Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not only for women in journalism but journalism itself,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement Friday. “She was a one-of-a-kind reporter who has conducted many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state to the biggest celebrities and sports icons. It has been a pleasure to call Barbara as a colleague of more than three decades, but more importantly I have been able to call her a dear friend We will all miss her at The Walt Disney Company, and we send our deepest condolences to her daughter, Jacqueline.”
More is coming…
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