WALTERS. Eventful farewell for the pioneering broadcast journalist
Attention-hungry stars are famous for their creative ploys to get noticed, especially the “grand entrances” they stage at show biz events.
They make it a point to come “fashionably” late, so fans get antsy anticipating their arrival. At awards shows, some winners show up at the very last minute or second, so their acceptance speeches are particularly emotional, fervent—and long-winded.
If ordinary celebrities can make such a big fuss and to-do over their entrances, it stands to reason that, at the end of some iconic stars’ glittering careers, they are entitled to stage even more attention-calling and dramatic “grand exits” to cap their long and acclaimed stints in the biz with suitable drama, significance and panoply.
That’s what happened recently when Barbara Walters said goodbye to her loyal fans and viewers after 53 years in the TV news and interview biz. When she began her career as a young woman, there were very few members of her gender doing the TV news, so she had to put up with a lot of macho opposition and “fraternity initiation” razzing as best she could. But, she was able to prove that she was a professional broadcast journalist, so the razzing and harassing diminished through the years, until more women were allowed to do the news.
Landmark event
The next big landmark event was when Katie Couric was given by CBS the sole anchor slot in its prime evening newscast—making her the first woman to do solo anchor work on the TV news in the States. But, it was really Walters who bore the brunt of being the female pioneer half a century ago.
These days, of course, female TV journalists are all over the place, and they recently made sure that Walters knew how grateful they were to her for showing the way, by surprising her on her last telecast of “The View,” the all-female “forum” show she hosted and produced. They were all there—Oprah Winfrey, Meredith Vieira, and other female stars of US broadcast news—truly a “grand exit” for Walters, who was overwhelmed—and feelingly expressed her gratitude, in turn!
For his part, late-night talk show pioneer David Letterman announced his retirement months before Walters, but he’s still on the air and has yet to make his grand exit, after a long, irascible and idiosyncratic career as the eternal rebel and spoofer of conservatives on US TV.
What will his official farewell show be like? Knowing him only too well, we half-suspect that he’ll line up a guest list every bit as impressive as Walters’—but, not show up at all!
On the local TV scene, some oldies but not so goodies have been overstaying their welcome for years. They sometimes look like they’re sleepwalking through their news shows, so some people wonder when they will finally decide to retire!
If and when they do, there are many personable and capable younger TV journalists just itching to take their place, all eager to prove their worth, not take it for granted, and genuinely be of service to the viewing public—as it really deserves to be served!