14 DAY TRIAL // For the past couple of years, reports about Barbara Walters’ retirement plans have been popping up with regularity, only to be shut down by both Walters and ABC. This time, it’s really happening, Deadline writes.
According to the trade publication, Walters will retire in May 2014 and, as we speak, she’s getting ready to make her announcement.
The fact that Deadline has so many details into the kind of send-off she’ll be getting is making many think that there might be a lot of truth in the report.
“Fitting for Walters’ status as the grand dame of TV journalism and a signature face of ABC News, I hear she would be given a big sendoff with retrospectives and other special content in the weeks leading to her retirement that would celebrate her 52-year broadcast career,” Deadline writes.
“Walters had been determined to leave on her own terms, so it is unclear whether revealing the plans would make her change her mind and whether she would go for a full retirement or keep some TV presence with occasional appearances and specials,” adds the same media outlet.
Earlier this month, insiders were telling the media that Walters had already decided she wanted out of The View, as part of a planned move to boost ratings by changing the co-hosts. Joy Behar had already said she was leaving, and many believed Elisabeth Hasselbeck would do the same.