2 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How US star Barbara Walters opened the door for women in television
Barbara Walters became a star on US network NBC's Today in the early 1960s, raising the stature of the morning franchise.
She opened doors for women as a network anchor and turned newsmaker interviews into major television events – 74 million tuned into her interview with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, whose affair with Bill Clinton ended his presidency.
She also created one of American daytime TV's longest-running hits with The View, which evolved into a major forum for the country's political discourse.
'The audience size that Barbara was able to capture and harness is unmatched in today's world,' says Jackie Jesko, director of the new documentary Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything, debuting on Hulu after its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month.
'Everything she did sort of made a difference.'
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Jesko's feature – produced by Imagine Documentaries and ABC News Studios – is the first in-depth look into Walters' storied career. The film also serves as a sweeping historical review of the decades-long dominance of network news that made figures such as Walters a gatekeeper of the culture, as Jesko describes her.
