Barbara Walters’ ground-breaking exclusive interviews with world figures and her enterprising reporting have made her one of the most highly acclaimed journalists on television. Over the years, Walters has received national recognition for her work and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Just in the past few years, Walters was: 1) inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame “for being acknowledged worldwide as one of television’s most respected interviewers and journalists,” 1990; 2) honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for a career in journalism excellence by Marist College, 1990; 3) honored by the Overseas Press Club with their highest award, the President’s Award, 1988; 4) saluted by the American Museum of the Moving Image, March 19, 1992; 5) Lifetime Achievement Award, International Women’s Media Foundation, 1991; 6) Lifetime Achievement Award, Women’s Project and Productions, 1993; and 7) honored by the Museum of Television & Radio for her contributions to broadcast journalism, 1996.
Walters’ numerous and timely interviews — which appear regularly on the weekly newsmagazine 20/20, The Barbara Walters Specials and, most recently, her ABC Daytime program The View — read like a Who’s Who of newsmakers.
She has interviewed every American President 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 primetime conversation with Cuban President Fidel Castro — an interview which has been printed in half a dozen languages and shown all over the world.
However, her interview with Christopher Reeve, following an accident which left the actor paralyzed from the neck down, was among the most extraordinary events in Walters’ career. Broadcast in September 1995, the one-hour interview was the highest-rated 20/20 program in recent years and was watched by nearly 29 million viewers. The following April, the broadcast received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award.
Walters is co-host and co-executive producer of the ABC Daytime program, The View, a fresh and lively one-hour daily broadcast hosted by a team of four women of different ages and backgrounds.
Since its debut in August 1997, The View has won critical praise and numerous Daytime Emmy Award nominations — including outstanding talk show and hosts — as well as steadily increasing audiences. In addition to developing and overseeing the program with her longtime executive producer Bill Geddie, Walters joins the panel on an average of twice a week.
Walters joined ABC News in 1976 as the first woman to co-host the network news. In 1984, she joined Hugh Downs as host of the ABC newsmagazine 20/20.
Prior to joining ABC, she appeared on NBC’s Today for 15 years, longer than any other woman on the program. She began on the Today show as a writer, and within a year became a reporter-at-large, developing, writing and editing her own reports and interviews.
In 1974, NBC officially designated her as the program’s first female co-host. Early in her career, she was a writer for CBS News and before that, she was the youngest producer with NBC-TV’s New York station WNBC-TV.
Walters is the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from Ohio State University, Temple University, Marymount College, Wheaton College and Hofstra University. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College.
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