Barbara Jill Walters (born September 25, 1929) is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. Walters is known for having hosted a variety of television programs, including Today, The View, 20/20, and the ABC Evening News. Since retirement as a full-time host and contributor, she has continued to occasionally report for ABC News.
Walters first became known as a television personality in the early 1960s, when she was a writer and segment producer of "women's interest stories" on the NBC News morning program The Today Show, where she began work with host Hugh Downs. As a result of her outstanding interviewing ability and her popularity with viewers, she received more airtime on the program. Even though her production duties made her a significant contributor to the program, she had no input in choosing a successor for Downs when he left in 1971, and Frank McGee was hired. In 1974, at the time of McGee's death, Walters became co-host of the program, the first woman to hold such a title on an American news program.