The View Will Honor Barbara Walters In A Dedicated Special
On December 30, 2022, legendary journalist and interviewer Barbara Walters died at the age of 93. She changed the landscape for women in the industry, became the highest-paid TV journalist, and took her "women's interest" stories on "The Today Show" and turned it into a co-hosting position — a first for a woman. She also became the first female co-anchor of "ABC Evening News." Later on, in 1997, Walters created, produced, and served as a co-host for the ABC talk show "The View," which gave voices to women from different walks of life and different generations. Now that show will honor its founder with a dedicated special, according to a post from the Instagram account for "The View."
The post reads: "#TheView was her idea, her passion, her show. Join us Tuesday morning as we celebrate the one and only Barbara Walters." When the talk show began, the lineup was Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos, and Joy Behar, with Walters remaining on as a co-host until 2014. Currently, Behar is the only original member, co-hosting with Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Ana Navarro.
The show honors its creator 26 seasons in
The show was set to return from the holiday break on Tuesday, January 3, 2023, but will now show the special instead. We don't have any details at the time of this writing about whether this special will reunite any of the former panelists, either the originals or later hosts like Lisa Ling, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Rosie O'Donnell, Candace Cameron Bure, Meghan McCain, Rosie Perez, Raven-Symoné or any others. Still, we might assume that some of these women will be there to pay tribute. In addition, it's likely that Barbara Walters' "The View" co-creator and executive producer Bill Geddie, often a visual presence on the show, will be there to speak about her contributions to the series in particular and journalism in general.
"The View" has won 31 Daytime Emmy Awards and tried to show multiple sides of issues, often courting controversy with infighting among the hosts, political battles, and behavior when the cameras weren't rolling. Whatever your opinion of the talk show, it did present a panel of intelligent women discussing the important topics of the day and not from a single side. The desire to show both sides of each problem often led to issues between the TV personalities, hirings and firings, suspensions, and years-long feuds, but it has clearly worked in terms of viewership. "The View" is currently airing its 26th season.
"The View" special "Remembering Barbara Walters" will air on ABC at 11 am ET/10 am PT/CT.