By — John Yang John Yang By — Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin By — Alexis Cox Alexis Cox By — Maea Lenei Buhre Maea Lenei Buhre Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/barbara-walters-history-making-career-in-television-news Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio Broadcast journalist Barbara Walters died Friday night at her home in New York. She was 93. Walters was a trailblazer for women in television news and played an influential role in shaping the field into what it is today. We look back at her iconic decades-long career as a writer, producer, interviewer and anchor. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. John Yang: And broadcast journalist Barbara Walters died last night at her home in New York. She was a trailblazer for women in television news and went on to help shape the field into what it is today. Harry Reasoner, Broadcast News Anchor: I have a new colleague to welcome — Barbara. John Yang: Barbara Walters was the first woman to anchor a network evening news show.Her interviews not only made news, they sometimes helped make history. In 1977, her first joint interview with the leaders of Israel and Egypt foreshadowed their peace treaty.She moderated two presidential debates while at the same time becoming both synonymous with the big, glitzy celebrity TV interview …Barbara Walters, TV News Anchor and Host: Are you at all worried you will lose some of the country fans? John Yang: — and a pop-culture icon herself. The subject of "Saturday Night Live" send-up by Gilda Radner.In 1997, her fourth decade in television, she created and hosted "The View," a format that has been much copied sense.Walters started in television behind the scenes as a writer and producer, notably on NBC`s "Today" in the 1960s. She regularly appeared on-camera as what was called a "Today" Girl but was not officially made a cohost until 1974, the first woman to hold that title.She jumped to ABC in 1976, lured by a big salary and a seat at the evening news anchor desk. Unidentified Male: Barbara Walters. John Yang: While cohosting ABC`s "20/20," her interviews became a venue for public figures dealing with unwelcome notoriety.In 1999, Monica Lewinsky broke her silence by sitting down with Walters after the political storm over her affair with president Bill Clinton. It remains one of the most watched television news interviews ever, with some 74 million viewers.Walters was slowed in 2010 by heart surgery. And four years later, retired from "The View." But she continued to do big interviews. Barbara Walters: Did you just wake up one day and say, I`d like to be president? John Yang: One of her final subjects in 2015 was then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.After spending decades in front of the camera, Walters largely stayed out of public view in her final years. When she died, she was 93 years old. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Dec 31, 2022 By — John Yang John Yang John Yang is the anchor of PBS News Weekend and a correspondent for the PBS News Hour. He covered the first year of the Trump administration and is currently reporting on major national issues from Washington, DC, and across the country. @johnyangtv By — Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin is an Emmy and Peabody award winning producer at the PBS NewsHour. In her two decades at the NewsHour, Baldwin has crisscrossed the US reporting on issues ranging from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan to tsunami preparedness in the Pacific Northwest to the politics of poverty on the campaign trail in North Carolina. Farther afield, Baldwin reported on the problem of sea turtle nest poaching in Costa Rica, the distinctive architecture of Rotterdam, the Netherlands and world renowned landscape artist, Piet Oudolf. @lornabaldwin By — Alexis Cox Alexis Cox By — Maea Lenei Buhre Maea Lenei Buhre Maea Lenei Buhre is a general assignment producer for the PBS NewsHour.