Barbara Walters

Emmy winner Barbara Walters was a pioneering figure in the male-dominated world of network news in the 1960s and 1970s, who later emerged as an American broadcasting icon. A writer, researcher, producer and eventual on-air co-host of "The Today Show" (NBC, 1952- ), Walters continually pushed boundaries and her tenacious pursuit of hard news resulted in some of the biggest scoops of the era. In a significant victory for the droves of newly liberated women of the early 1970s, Walters was promoted to NBC News correspondent and entrusted with such responsibilities as covering President Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972. In 1976, Walters moved to ABC, where, after a troubled start as the first female co-anchor of a nightly network news broadcast, "World News Tonight" (ABC, 1976- ), she launched the infamous "Barbara Walters Specials" (ABC, 1976- ). These insightful profiles of top names in politics, sports and entertainment were ratings-grabbers, thanks to Walters' ingenious method of curve-ball questions that extracted the kind of personal revelations subjects least wanted to talk about. She continued to serve ABC news as a special correspondent and co-hosted the network's prime time news magazine "20/20" (1978- ) for over 20 years. As the creator of the controversial hit female-centric panel/talk show "The View" (ABC, 1997- ), Walters proved that after four-plus decades of catering to both hard news and entertainment audiences, she still had a knack for delivering timely topics in a way that appealed to audiences. Walters retired from "The View" and her other on-air duties in May 2014, drawing one of the most renowned careers in television news to an end.