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On August 11, 1997, Barbara Walters aired the first show of “The View.” During its 26th season, the daytime programming block honored its creator with a tribute after she passed on December 30, 2022, at 93 years old.
Whoopi Goldberg kicked off the show on January 3, 2023, noting all the tributes “pouring in from around the world” celebrating Walters’ life and legacy in journalism. “The reason why we’re all sitting here, if not for her, I don’t know where most of us would be,” Goldberg said.
While sitting at the show’s iconic table, co-host Joy Behar said that Walters “very much defied sexism and defied ageism; she went right into the jaws of the lion there when she had to deal with people like Harry Reasoner.”
“She was not just a friend to us, she was one of a kind and very important to the industry,” Joy added.
Walters, who created “The View” when she was 68 years old, was among the “very few people [who] started a new career at that age.” Behar added that “she had no mentors or role models because she was the original role model for everyone else. We have to give the woman a lot of credit.”
The show became more emotional when former co-hosts Star Jones, Lisa Ling, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Shepherd, Meredith Vieira, and Debbie Matenopoulos joined the table.
Vieira took the opportunity to thank Walkers and share the story of when she auditioned for the show. “I found it fun; it was innovative, groundbreaking. I just wanted to be part of it,” Vieira said. “It opened the door to so many opportunities for me, and it made me realize that you don’t have to stay on one path in life…I owe that realization to Barbara,” she said, referring to her transition from journalist to tv host.
Twenty-six years ago, Walters launched the ABC daytime talk show with four co-hosts, including Matenopoulos, Vieira, Jones, and Walters. To date, the show has had more than 20 different co-hosts. Walters retired from the show in 2014.
Barbara Walters, a pioneer television anchor, and journalist, “passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones,” her representative said in a statement released on Friday, December 30th. “She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists but for all women.”