After 37 years at ABC, Barbara Walters is calling it quits, the network announced Sunday evening. She will break the news herself today on her national daily morning show, “The View.”
“It’s time,” Walters said. “I keep thinking of the line from ‘Cabaret.’ ‘When I go, I’m going like Chelsea.’ When I go there is not going to be any, ‘Please can I have another appearance?’ I don’t want to do any more interviews. I don’t want to do any other programs. I’m not joining CNN. This is it.”
Over the course of her 50-year career, Walters, 83, did more than interview an endless list of VIPs. As the nation’s first female anchorwoman, she was also a broadcasting pioneer.
Don’t mourn just yet—she’s not leaving for another year, and it’s going to be a busy one. According to the New York Times, upcoming projects include a final edition of the 10 most fascinating people, an interview with President and Mrs. Obama, a series of retrospective clips from “The View,” and a possible return to the Academy Awards special she stopped doing several years ago. Finally, in a rare role shift Walters will be the subject of a special– one that sums up her career. How they’ll fit that into an hour, we don’t know.
