That’s what the Hollywood Reporter is claiming tonight, with the caveat that she’ll remain on The View for one more year:
After more than half a century in broadcast journalism and nearly 40 years at ABC News, Barbara Walters is officially ready to retire. Walters will make the announcement herself on Monday’s edition of The View – the ABC daytime program she co-created and has hosted since 1997.
Walters, who will turn 84 in September, intends to remain on The View through next season and will step down after the season wraps in summer 2014. She’ll continue to be a co-executive producer of the show and will be involved in selecting new co-hosts to replace Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Behar announced in March that she’ll depart after the current season. Hasselbeck has yet to confirm that she’s leaving the show.
As I wrote in March at Instapundit when the news first broke (either as a scoop, or an ambush from ABC to set her retirement in motion), the decade worth of train wrecks on The View — not the least of which were Rosie’s 9/11 Trutherisms and Whoopi’s Moon Landing Truther moment — will certainly tarnish Walters’ legacy when her career is ultimate assessed.
Update: “Didn’t Barbara Walters leave journalism years ago when she started on The View?” Well, yes.
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