WALTERS, BARBARA

WALTERS, BARBARA (1931– ), U.S. broadcast journalist. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Walters received a B.A. in English from Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1953. She began her career as a writer for local television stations on the   East Coast. In 1961 she joined NBC's Today show, and in 1964 she became its lead female correspondent. She was already earning a reputation as a skilled reporter and interviewer at a time when women's function on news programs was usually subordinated to the male anchors. She hosted the TV series Not for Women Only (1971–76). In 1974 NBC accorded her the status of co-host on Today, a position she retained until 1976. Walters had a string of exclusive interviews with personalities of international status – including Fidel Castro, Anwar Sadat, and every U.S. president since Richard Nixon. In 1976 she joined ABC as co-anchor of its evening news with Harry Reasoner, at a salary of $1 million per year for five years. She thus became the first female to anchor a news broadcast on a major network and the first anchorperson to earn a million dollars a year. While Walters' arrival did not signal the ratings boost for which ABC had hoped, she remained on contract to the network and flourished with a series of interview specials and as a correspondent on the newsmagazine 20/20, of which she was the co-host from 1984 until 2004. Among her many television stints and appearances, she hosted the running interview series The Barbara Walters Specials (which began in 1976); served as substitute anchor on ABC News Nightline (1991–2004); hosted the TV series Turning Point, along with such journalists as Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer (1993–97); and hosted the music show in a New Light '94 (1994); the TV special A Celebration: 100 Years of Great Women (1999); and the TV talk show The View from 1997, serving as its executive producer in 1999–2000. Among her many honors and awards, Walters was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards and won one in 2003 for The View. She was inducted into the Television Academy Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in 1990; she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women's Media Foundation (1991); was honored by the American Museum of the Moving Image (1992); received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women's Project and Productions (1993); and in 1996 was honored by the Museum of Television and Radio for her contributions to broadcast journalism. Walters wrote How to Talk with Practically Anybody about Practically Anything (1970). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Fox, Barbara Walters: The News Her Way (1980); M. Malone, Barbara Walters: TV Superstar (1990); J. Oppenheimer, Barbara Walters: An Unauthorized Biography (1992); H. Remstein, Barbara Walters (1998). (Rohan Saxena and Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)