Barbara Walters: The Power of a Single Question and the Evolution of Network News

Barbara Walters is a television icon whose longevity and influence in the industry is unparalleled. She rose to fame on NBC's "Today" show in the early 1960s, elevating the status of morning news programs and paving the way for women in network anchoring. Her interviews with prominent figures became major television events, with 74 million viewers tuning in to her 1999 sit-down with Monica Lewinsky. Walters also created "The View," one of daytime TV's longest-running hits, which evolved into a major forum for political discourse in the country.

The new documentary "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything," directed by Betsy West and produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Documentaries and ABC News Studios, provides an in-depth look into Walters' storied career. The film serves as a sweeping historical review of the decades-long dominance of network news that made figures like Walters a gatekeeper of the culture.

Before the advent of social media and podcasts, going through the X-ray machine of a Barbara Walters interview delivered exposure on a massive scale. David Sloan, a longtime ABC News producer who worked with Walters, recalls how the screen images of her specials flickered through the windows of Manhattan apartment towers.

The documentary was created not long after Walters' death at the age of 93 in 2022. Sara Bernstein, president of Imagine Documentaries, approached West about taking on a Walters project. Sloan, who oversaw an Emmy-winning tribute after Walters' death, also wanted a deeper exploration into the impact of her career. West and Sloan became executive producers on the film, which taps deeply into the ABC News archives, which contain thousands of hours of interviews Walters conducted over her 40 years at the network.

Walters' story is a guided tour of the obstacle-ridden path women faced in the early days of TV news when it was dominated by patriarchy and self-importance. Female reporters were relegated to writing soft features and kept at a distance from hard news. But Walters shattered those barriers through her grit and wits. She toiled as a writer in local TV and a failed CBS morning program before landing at NBC's "Today" in 1961. Despite not believing she was attractive enough to be on camera, the morning viewing audience loved Walters. Her career trajectory was slowed down only by male executives unwilling to embrace the idea that a woman could be the face of a network news operation. By 1971, Walters was the main attraction on "Today" when she sat alongside host Frank McGee every morning. But she was denied equal status, leading to her going outside the NBC studios to conduct interviews where her subjects lived or worked. This approach not only gave her control of the conversations but added a level of intimacy that audiences were not getting elsewhere on television.

Walters made history again when she was poached by ABC News in 1976, where she continued to break barriers as a network anchor and host. Her impact on television history is undeniable, and "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything" is a must-watch for anyone interested in the evolution of network news and the role women have played in shaping it.