Current and past co-hosts of The View paid tribute to Barbara Walters on today’s first live show since her passing. Walters, the show’s creator and former host, passed away on December 30th, 2022, at 93. Since then, numerous tributes have poured in for the groundbreaking, iconic journalist. Oprah Winfrey has paid tribute, and Walters was honored in a two-hour special for 20/20, the show she used to host. Now the ladies of The View, as well as co-hosts from past seasons, have paid tribute to the woman without whom they would never have sat at the table in the first place.
The Ladies of ‘The View’ Pay Honor to Creator and Co-Host Barbara Walters
The show opened with current co-hosts of The View discussing their personal memories with Barbara Walters. Whoopi Goldberg reminisced about being interviewed by Walters for her annual Most Fascinating People special and how they bonded over a shared sense of sorrow for putting their careers over their families. “My relationship with her started with that,” Goldberg said, “but it was really an audition for 20 years later to come hang out with you all.” Joy Behar, who had been with Walters since the start of The View, praised Walter for the pioneer and role model she was to all women in the industry. “She very much defied sexism,” Behar said. “She defined agism. She went right into the jaws of the lion… She had no mentors or role models because she was the original role model for everybody else.”
The original co-hosts of The View, Behar, Debbie Matenopolus, Star Jones, and Meredith Vierra all got together on today’s episode to reminisce about their memories with their former boss. They all reflected on the fun they had with Walters and how bringing them on as her View co-hosts opened doors that would never have been opened.
Former co-hosts of The View, Lisa Ling, and Sherri Shepherd, also came on to discuss their experiences working with Walters. The two former co-hosts celebrated Walters taking a genuine interest in their lives, her fierce protectiveness, and her willingness to “kick them under the table” for the sake of keeping them professional.
Former co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck also honored Walters on The View, saying, “I was her TV daughter, she was my TV mom.”
We were then treated to a highlight of some of the best Barbara Walters moments ranging from moving to hard-hitting to flat-out hilarious. The highlight of them all was when Oprah Winfrey appeared on Walters’ last show to introduce the many successful female journalists who the trailblazer inspired.
The View reached out to former co-host Rosie O’Donnell for the Barbara Walters special, but O’Donnell could not attend due to a scheduling conflict. She has taken to social media to honor her former boss.
Today’s episode of The View ended appropriately with footage of Barbara Walters on her final show in 2014 saying farewell. The footage then changes to a picture of Barbara Walters next to an empty chair with her name on it.
