Veteran broadcast journalist Barbara Walters may be planning
to retire next year. According to multiple reports, the ABC newswoman is poised
to announce her plans to end her 52-year career in May 2014.
An ABC News spokesperson had no comment. The reports
indicated the network is planning a send-off of specials and tributes leading
up to her departure.
The 83-year-old Walters took several weeks off from hosting The
View earlier this year after she suffered a concussion during a fall over
Inauguration Day weekend and a subsequent bout with chicken pox. After cohost
Joy Behar announced she would leave The View at the end of this season,
Walters remains the daytime program's sole original cohost. Elisabeth
Hasselbeck is also reportedly on the way out, though ABC has denied those
reports.
Walters has been a trailblazer for female broadcast
journalists, becoming the first female coanchor of NBC's Today show in
1974. In 1976, she jumped to ABC to become the first female anchor of an
evening newscast, paired with Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News.
She additionally worked for 25 years as a cohost of ABC's 20/20 and created The
View in 1997.
Deadline
first reported the story.
