<span class="s1">Barbara Walters, the first woman to co-anchor an American evening news programme, is retiring. The US network ABC said Walters, 83, will announce on <em>The View</em>, the all-women talk show she created in 1997, that she will retire from television journalism next summer.</span> <span class="s1">“Until then, she will continue to anchor and report for ABC News, appear on <em>The View</em>, and anchor specials throughout the year,” said the statement, noting that Walters would remain an executive producer of the show. </span> <span class="s1">“I am very happy with my decision and look forward to a wonderful year ahead both on <em>The View </em>and with ABC News,” the statement quoted her as saying. “I created <em>The View </em>and am delighted it will last beyond my leaving it.”</span> <span class="s1">ABC sources said in March that, after more than five decades as a prominent figure on American television, Walters planned to retire in May 2014. Walters had heart surgery in 2010. She fainted and suffered a concussion in January and was then diagnosed with chickenpox, causing her to miss more than a month of work.</span> <span class="s1">She is best known as one of the top interviewers on television, counting an array of world leaders as subjects, including Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and every American president since Richard Nixon.</span> <span class="s1">Walters got her break in 1961 as a writer on NBC’s <em>Today</em> – she would later become the first woman to co-host the show. </span> <span class="s1">In 1976, she became the first woman to co--anchor an evening news broadcast on an American television network for ABC's <em>Evening News</em>. </span><span class="s2">– Reuters</span> Follow us Follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thenationalArtsandLife">Facebook</a> for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.
