US TV news legend Barbara Walters dies aged 93

Pioneering television journalist Barbara Walters, who upended a male-dominated industry as the first woman to anchor an evening news show in the United States, has died at the age of 93, her long-time employer ABC said late Friday (Dec 30).

Walters interviewed a host of US presidents, foreign leaders such as Anwar Sadat and Fidel Castro, and A-list celebrities in a hugely successful career that spanned five decades – becoming a touchstone of American culture in the process.

Walters won 12 Emmy awards, all but one while at ABC, the network said.

She largely retired from television after signing off in 2014 from the daytime programme “The View,” which she had launched in 1997.

Walters created a much-copied template for high-profile political and celebrity interviews – and blazed a trail for women in an industry run by white middle-aged men.

“How proud I am today when I see all the young women who are making and reporting the news,” Walters said on her last appearance on “The View.”

Her news career began in earnest in 1961 when she joined NBC’s breakfast news and entertainment show “Today.”

Walters became the first woman to anchor a US evening news programme when she joined “ABC Evening News” in 1976, earning the then-unprecedented salary of US$1 million a year.

Three years later, she was named co-host of the news magazine programme “20/20”, beginning a run that would last more than two decades.

Before leaving television, Walters had interviewed every US president and first lady since Richard Nixon.

Her co-anchor on “ABC Evening News” was Harry Reasoner, who barely concealed his displeasure over working beside her. He died in 1991 at age 68.

Walters’ long list of interviewees included political leaders such as Boris Yeltsin, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin, and A-listers like Michael Jackson, Angelina Jolie and Harrison Ford.