How Barbara Walters, Adweek’s TV News Legend, Changed the Industry ‘Forever’

3 ABC News presidents reflect on her remarkable legacy

Barbara Walters reinvented TV news during her five decades in the business. In 1974, she became the first female co-host of an American news program on Today (though she had already been doing the job unofficially for a decade); and two years later, ABC Evening News named her the first female co-anchor of a network evening news broadcast. Walters also co-hosted 20/20 for 25 years and created The View in 1997, but she is best known for her blockbuster interviews with world leaders, entertainment icons and global newsmakers.

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This story first appeared in the Jan. 14, 2019, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.