Barbara Walters has been in the journalism business a long ass time and has interviewed everyone from major political figures to… the Kardashians. She’s also sat her can on The View roundtable for the past several years, putting up with insufferable whiners and putting the world to rights despite her advancing age. Well, now the 83-year-old is ready to hang up her hat come summer 2014 and will be retiring for good.
From ABC News:
The legendary newscaster will leave TV journalism next summer
For decades, Barbara Walters has inspired millions with her groundbreaking interviews — but after 37 years with ABC News, the newscaster is announcing on “The View” Monday that next summer, she will retire from TV journalism. Until then, she will continue to anchor and report for ABC News, appear on “The View,” and anchor specials throughout the year including a “20 Years of 10 Most Fascinating People” special in December, an Oscars special, and a May career retrospective.
Walters will remain Executive Producer of “The View,” the show she created in 1997.
“I am very happy with my decision and look forward to a wonderful and special year ahead both on ‘The View’ and with ABC News,” she said. “I created ‘The View’ and am delighted it will last beyond my leaving it.”
Walters began her career in 1961 at NBC’s “Today Show,” where she eventually became a co-host.
“No one was more surprised than I,” she says of her on-air career. “I wasn’t beautiful, like many of the women on the program before me, [and] I had trouble pronouncing my r’s. I still do!”
Right on, Babs. You’ve earned it.